


Running with Wolves (SEMI-HIATUS)

by 1TruFangirl



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Death Eaters, First War with Voldemort, Gryffindor, Hogwarts, Hogwarts Sixth Year, Marauders, Marauders' Era, Order of the Phoenix - Freeform, Quidditch, Slow Burn, War, jily, wolfstar
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-02
Updated: 2018-10-23
Packaged: 2019-02-09 11:19:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 29
Words: 48,342
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12886764
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/1TruFangirl/pseuds/1TruFangirl
Summary: September first marks the beginning of a much more difficult school year for the sixth years at Hogwarts.Between NEWT classes, and transforming into a ruthless beast once was month, Remus Lupin knows this is bound to be true.Sirius Black can’t help but notice that over the summer Remus changed. He’s taller, less scrawny. He actually looks almost healthy for the first time in his life. And for some reason Sirius keeps getting this weird feeling in his chest whenever he’s around his friend.James Potter can’t figure out why Lily Evans is suddenly talking to him, but his two best friends have stopped talking to each other at all.Peter’s Pettigrew knows he’s acting distant, but it’s not really his fault, his friends seem to be too preoccupied and he’s turned into the fifth wheel. Still, his friends are starting to suspect that he’s hiding something.War is brewing on the horizons and the danger is increasing in the wizarding world. People are dying every day and those within Hogwarts are taking sides. Even Hogwarts is no longer as safe as it once was. Tensions are growing, everyone is divided and everyone has secrets.Just another year at Hogwarts.





	1. Introduction

**Author's Note:**

> Work-in-progress that I sincerely hope to finish. I'm gonna try and update regularly, but I'm trash at that kind of thing. Comment, like, etc, etc... much love,  
> -1TruFangirl

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Part 1: The Gathering Storm

“You’ll be sure to write?” Remus’ mother asked placing both hands on his face and standing on her toes to brush her lips to his cheek.

“Of course, I will, Mum.”

“And if anything happens, you make sure and tell us, alright?” She brushed the dirt of his sweater and adjusted his scarf.

“Yes, Mum. I have to go,” he urged as a high-pitched whistle sounded from the scarlet steam engine fifteen feet away.

“Oh, be safe dear.”

Remus paused as he was about to turn and swept both his parents up in a hug. He was taller than both of them now. His father wrapped a firm arm around his shoulder and patting him gently on the back. His glasses dug into Remus’ cheek. His mother kissed him one more time for good measure and they sent him off to the train. Remus waved once more and heaved his trunk through the door with a heavy thump and made his way down the train corridor, giving short “hello”s to a couple of people as he passed. He dodged a young Ravenclaw girl who seemed determined to keep him in a conversation.

In a compartment near the back of the train sat three people completely wrapped up in the mess they were creating: Peter Pettigrew, a small stout boy with blond hair, staring reverently at the other two, James Potter, a much taller boy with dark hair and lopsided glasses, and Sirius Black, a boy in a black t-shirt and ripped jeans with hair fell gracefully to his shoulders, into his eyes. Sirius reached across the compartment to ruffle James’ already untidy hair. James retaliated by shoving Sirius off him. Sirius grabbed a handful of what looked like empty potion vials from the trunk that lay open on the ground, clothing and books scattered everywhere. The vials thumped against James’ back and onto the floor where several shattered; one hit Peter in the knee. Remus smiled leaning against the compartment door, admiring the greatest friends he had ever had, a familiar warmth gathering in his chest.

Sirius stopped immediately when he saw Remus at the door. James batted at his shoulder, but when he caught sight of Remus as well, his face broke into a grin. He grabbed Remus’ trunk from him and hoisted in onto the luggage rack above their heads. Sirius only gaped at Remus, holding onto the windowsill like his life depended on it, hair falling into his eyes.

“Are you alright, Sirius?” Remus asked, eyebrow raised. Sirius snapped his mouth shut and promptly released the window.

“Yeah, I’m great!” Sirius said hastily, brushing his fingers through his hair and pulling it up into a bun behind his head. “Sorry about the mess.” He grabbed his wand off the seat behind him and waved it quickly at the mess around them, muttering spells under his breath so the room collected itself. The vials on the floor repaired themselves. Clothes folded themselves into neat piles, and Sirius’ trunk settled onto the luggage rack, tagging James in the ear as it flew by. James elbowed Sirius, but Sirius ignored him, gestured for Remus to sit in the seat next to his.

Another high-pitched whistle cut the air; silver steam billowed up in front of the window and the train lurched forward, rolling lazily away from the platform.

“Have a good summer then, Rem?” James asked, leaning back and kicking his feet up onto Sirius’ lap. Sirius batted him away. James scowled more out of formality than actual irritation. Remus watched affectionately. They were like overgrown twelve-year-olds.

“I suppose it definitely could have been worse.” Remus said. “My great Aunt came to visit. God, you have no idea…the night mare.” Remus rolled his eyes and laughter pealed through the compartment. “And hiding my ‘fury little problem’ from her—not an experience I’ll be eager to repeat.”  
James grimaced “She doesn’t know you’re a werewolf?” He asked.

“She doesn’t know I’m a wizard,” Remus scoffed “She’s my mum’s Aunt. She’d have a fit if she ever found out Mum married a Wizard. You should hear her talk.” Remus pitched his voice high. “‘You should have married up, Hope. Instead you’re stuck here in this dingy cabin with too ditzy to remember his own name. He’s lucky to have you. He’d loose his head if it weren’t for you, dear.’”

Again, the cart filled with snorts and guffawing. 

“What about you, James?” Remus asked. “How was Paris?”

James’ smile wilted. “The trip was cancelled, so I spent most of the summer at home. You should’ve seen it. He showed up—,” James flipped a finger in Sirius’ direction. “In the middle of the night, in the pouring rain, soaked through to the skin and knocking on my bedroom window.” Sirius grinned sheepishly.

“He hid in my bedroom for three days before my parents found out. Looked a right mess, too, until my mom fixed him up. He was covered in b--.” But then James caught Sirius’ stern eye, jaw clenched and James stopped talking abruptly.

“Why were you at James’ house,” Remus asked, watching Sirius, who starred down at his lap intensely; a lock of hair slipped from behind his ear. “And do I even want to know what you were covered in?”

Sirius laughed too quickly. “Absolutely not.” The train clicked along the track underneath them. “I ran away from home. Couldn’t stand it. My parents are more intolerable than ever, what with the war everyone thinks is about to happen.” He said the word “war” in a whisper, as if speaking it any louder would somehow make it that much more real.

“My parents haven’t been ignoring it either. That’s another reason we cancelled Paris.” James added. A somber quiet settled over the compartment.

“My dad says the war’s been going on for years now.” Remus murmured. “That You-Know-Who’s been gathering followers since before we started school and the ministry’s been trying to hide the damage. Apparently, that’s gotten a little harder now, what with all the…” Remus let the word trail away.

“Deaths.” James finished for him.

Remus glanced out the window at the grey clouds forming on the horizon. “We’re in for one hell of a year,” he said so softy he thought the others hadn’t heard him, but James let out a small sigh of agreement, Sirius nodded his head with resignation and Peter gave a small groan. The group fell into a melancholy silence. 

“Do you…” Peter bit his lip. “Do you think we’re really… that we’re really in danger?” Peter asked finally, digging his fingernails apprehensively into his forearms.

“Not as long as we’re at Hogwarts, Pete.” James smiled, patting Peter’s knee, though Peter didn’t look particularly reassured.

The day got rapidly darker as they travelled north into the clouds that followed them the entire journey. About midday, fat drops of rain followed, plastering the windows in a sheen of water so that the landscape outside was nothing but a blur of green and grey. Shortly afterward the food trolley came by.

“Thank God,” Sirius said, jumping to his feet. “I’m starving.” The Trolley Witch laughed heartily.

“What can I get for you dear?” she asked. Sirius bought half the cart, stuffing a handful of gold into the Trolley Witch’s hands without counting, and spread the sweets over the seat cushions. “Help yourselves,” he told them, digging into a pile of cauldron cakes. Remus had just reached for chocolate frog when Lily Evans burst into the compartment. Her hair was a mess and she had a wild look in her eyes.

“There you are Remus,” she said. “I’ve been looking all over for you. We have prefect duties.” Remus jumped to his feet, dumping his lap full of sweets onto the ground. “Sorry, Lily, I completely forgot.”

“Well, you’re here now.”

“Evans,” James called from the window, running his fingers through his hair.

“For God’s sake, just call me Lily.” Lily snapped, her eyes fixed on Remus as he attempted to wrestle his prefect’s badge from his trunk and pin it hastily to his chest. He snatched up a chocolate frog from the floor and followed Lily back up the corridor.

“See you later Moony,” said Sirius through a mouthful of cake. Remus waved once, and was gone.

“How was your summer, Remus?” Lily asked as they made their way down the corridor.

“Alright. Couldn’t really have hoped for better, I suppose, as far as summers go, I mean. It’s good to be coming back to Hogwarts though. As idiotic as those three are, it’s nice to see them again. What about you?”

“It was… fairly uneventful. My sister spent most of it ignoring me with her God-awful boyfriend, Vernon,” she replied scornfully. Remus chuckled lightly, rubbing the back of his neck absentmindedly. “And of course, I haven’t been able to tell them about You-Know-Who.”

“You know about all the things that have been happening then?”

She sighed. “I’ve been getting the Daily Prophet by owl every day this summer, so yes, I know. It’s really horrible what You-Know-Who and his followers have been doing, murdering people, wizards and muggles.” Lily paused, lunging into a nearby compartment, wand out, and immobilizing a giant boomerang wreaking havoc among several fourth years and ducking beneath the seats. She snatched the boomerang out of the air and stuffed it into the pocket of her robes, shutting the compartment door behind her as she left.

“I don’t know how nobody saw this coming.”

“I think they did, Lily. The Ministry did anyway. They’ve been concealing it from the public for years, to keep the panic to a minimum I expect.”

“How can they have let this happen?” 

Remus opened his mouth to respond, but then Lily stopped abruptly in her tracks.

“Lily? What’s—,” but then he looked up. Severus Snape stood in the corridor, looking like someone who had been caught doing something he shouldn’t. His body was stiff, he looked as gaunt and sour as ever, unkempt hair tangled around his face. For an awkward moment Snape and Lily stared each other down, refusing to break eye contact. Snape took a half step back, hunching slightly. For a moment, he opened his mouth to speak, stopped, clenched his fist and opened his mouth again, but before he could say anything, Lily looked away, grabbed Remus by the wrist and stalked past him. Remus made no complaint and didn’t look at Snape as he was pulled by, though he could still feel the Snape’s gaze burning into his back as they walked away.

When Lily finally slowed down, she was trembling. Remus rested a hand on her arm.

“Are you alright, Lily?” Remus asked gently.

“I… I still feel guilty.” She pulled a thread from the hem of her skirt, snapping it off and brushing it on the ground. “That I stopped being friends with him, that he—,”

“Don’t,” Remus told her. “He may have been your friend, but he’s never been a very good person. That much became obvious last year, when…”

“I know.”

“Besides, we can almost guarantee he’ll be fighting on the wrong side of the war when it comes down to it. You see the kinds of people he hangs out with.”

“That isn’t fair, Remus—,”

“Isn’t it?”

“I… oh, you might be right.”

“I usually am.”

“Don’t get cocky, Remus, it doesn’t suit you.”

When Remus got back to the compartment, it was just past three. The rain continued to pound heavily at the window and periodic flashed of lightning illuminated the compartment. The lanterns had already been lit in spite of the early hour, and the fire cast odd shadows on the walls. Candy wrappers littered the floor. Peter was fast asleep leaning against the doorframe, his breath misting on the window and James was chewing on a pile of sweets that Sirius had clearly been trying to save for Remus.

“Remus!” Sirius said when Remus came back in. “Sorry, James has gone and eaten most of your chocolate.” Sirius glared at James accusingly. James crumpled the candy wrapper he was holding with a guilty grin. Remus rolled his eyes.

“James, how could you?” He feigned offense, pressing his hands to his chest in mock-hurt.

“I saved one?” James lobbed the last chocolate frog at Remus; it hit Remus in the eyebrow and toppled down to the floor, sending James into guffaws.

“Oi, I’ve got enough scars on the rest of my body, I don’t need any from you, too. And anyway, I got some chocolate from Lily.”

James sobered up in an instant. “Did she say anything about me?”

“As a matter of fact, she did. I believe she used the words, childish, self-obsessed and buffoon.”

“She did not.”

“Not to far a leap, I’m afraid, Prongs,” Sirius said, picking the frog up off the floor and tossing it back at James, catching him by surprise. An easy smile settled on Sirius’ face. It was contagious. Remus dropped into the seat beside Sirius. In the sound of the rain pounding outside the window, the creak of the train barreling closer the Hogwarts, and his two best friends bickering, Remus let himself drift off into sleep. He woke up several hours later as they were pulling into Hogsmeade station, his head resting on Sirius’ shoulder.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Like, comment, etc, etc... Much Love,  
> -1TruFangirl


	2. Dumbledore's Warning

Every part of Remus’ body was soaked through. Just minutes in the freezing rain and all four of them found themselves dripping heavily on the stone floor, shivering. Remus pulled out his wand, using it to dry his clothes with a stream of warm air, and followed his friends into the Great Hall.

The ceiling of the Great Hall reflected the storm outside. Sirius squinted at it, as though by some force of sheer will he could make the rain stop. Lightning flashed, followed closely by the rumble of thunder and Sirius jumped. Remus stifled his laughter into his sleeve, putting a hand between Sirius’ shoulder blades and pushing him further down to catch up with James and Peter.

“God, I’m starving,” Sirius said over the buzz of the hundreds of other students in the hall as they sat down. James stared at him incredulously.

“You just had about a dozen pounds of sweets on the train a few hours ago. How in Merlin’s name are you already hungry?”

“I’m a growing boy, Prongsie, I need my food.” James rolled his eyes. “I hope the sorting goes quickly this year.”

“The sorting never goes quickly,” grumbled Peter.

“Shut up the pair of you,” said Remus, gesturing to the front of the Hall. The doors had opened, and a line of skinny, tiny little first years shuffled in behind Professor McGonogall, dripping wet and looking uncertain. McGonogall pulled out a battered looking old hat and a stool. She set the hat on the stool and stepped back. Everyone in the hall looked at it expectantly. The first years glanced around at each other, muttering their confusion. Half of them jumped when a rip in the hat split and it began to sing:

I welcome one and all of you  
To Hogwarts every year  
Created by the founders four,  
My job was very clear,  
To sort you in your houses,  
That is what I’m for  
And so it is for every batch  
Of students evermore  
And so it falls on me each year  
To put you in your place  
Which house will teach you best to fight  
The challenges you’ll face?  
Come place me on you head,  
And I’ll, inside your mind assess  
To find the house best suited to  
The traits that you possess  
Should you go to Ravenclaw?  
Where knowledge is their prize?  
This house will help you learn to see  
The world through different eyes.  
You might belong in Gryffindor  
Where bravery is king  
You’ll find yourself in company of those  
Who’ll take you in their wing.  
Or perhaps to Slytherin  
You’ll form such special ties  
Fueled by your ambition  
And through cunning will you rise.  
Or else your place is Hufflepuff  
If you’re loving and you’re loyal  
This hard-working group of students  
Will teach the meaning of their toil  
The house to which you’ll soon belong  
And oh, the friends you’ll make  
Will stay with you forever  
These bonds will never break.  
But as the Sorting Hat I warn,  
Be careful what you do  
Or, when faced with troubles new and old  
You’ll find your friends are few.  
If the Hogwarts houses four  
Cannot, united, stand  
I fear the growing danger  
Will soon gain the upper hand  
For every year the peril grows  
And Hogwarts finds itself divided  
If we cannot all cooperate  
We may find ourselves misguided.  
But at last the time has come for me  
To put you in your place  
So step up one and all of you  
Don’t hesitate, make haste.

The sorting hat settled back onto the stool looking as if it had never moved at all and the students in the Great Hall burst into respectful applause, though it was interspersed by curious muttering form all around the Hall.

“It’s doing that thing again,” James whispered, “Where it warns us to keep our friends close and to stay united and all that.”

“It’s this war. It thinks the only way we can defeat You-Know-Who is by coming together and defeating him as one,” Remus replied.

“Coming together? There’s no way I’m working with Snivellus and his friends. They’re practically Death Eaters already,” said Sirius.

“Settle down, students,” Professor McGonagall called form the top of the hall. “Now, when I call your name please put the Sorting Hat on your head and you will be sorted into your houses.” McGonagall pulled a scroll form her cloak unrolled it, and read, “Aaron, Taylor.” The poor boy shuffled up to the stool, nearly tripping on the way and put the hat on his head.

“Five galleons says he’s a Hufflepuff,” Sirius said leaning in to whisper in Remus’ ear. The kid sat on the stool for several minutes, but then the Hat shouted, “SLYTHERIN!” Remus help his hand out to Sirius under the table.

“Damn.” Scowling, Sirius reached into his pocket, pulled out five galleons and plopped them into Remus’ hand with a disgruntled sigh. Remus smirked. Sirius continued to scowl through the sorting of “Abbot, Melody”, “Abell, Jack”, “Abernathy, Lucy” and “Allamby, Nicholas” but by “Bracewell, Thomas” who became the first new Gryffindor, he seemed to have forgotten, and by “Eloise Fletcher,” (“RAVENCLAW!”) he was complaining about the lack of food again.

The sorting ended with Alexander Wright who took his place at the Hufflepuff table, and the headmaster stood, his arms outstretched, smiling softly through his silver beard.

“Welcome students, to another year at Hogwarts,” Professor Dumbledore announced. “I have many things that must be addresses, but I shall not distract you all from the wonderful feast you are all about to enjoy.” With that, he sat down, and the tables filled suddenly with mounds of food. Several of the new students gasped. Sirius didn’t hesitate to dig in. Remus watched him for a minute—Sirius brushed his hair behind his ear—before spooning mashed potatoes and turkey onto his plate.

“House elves really out did themselves this year,” Sirius said through his mouthful of steak. Remus gave him an exasperated huff in response.

“You say that every year, Sirius,” James told him.

“It’s always true.” And Sirius stuffed another fork of steak into his mouth.

“I agree with Sirius on this one,” Peter said.

“Yeah, but you’d join You-Know-Who if he offered you a big enough buffet,” James quipped. The little group burst into laughter.

“Would not,” said Peter, setting his fork down and folding his arms over his chest. He remained distinctly determined not to eat another bite the rest of the meal, though he did look longingly at the puddings that lined the table when dinner had finished. Remus resolved to save a little bit of it to give to Peter later that night.

When most of the students had finished eating, Professor Dumbledore rose to his feet once more. 

“I should hope you all had a wonderful meal. First, I would like to remind all students that The Forbidden Forest, is just that—Forbidden, as it is particularly dangerous, especially now.”

“What does he mean by that?” Sirius asked.”

“Shhh!” Remus elbowed him in the ribs.

“Oof! Hey, there’s no need to be rude.”

“I’m listening to Dumbledore.”

“Mr. Filch has asked me to tell you all that dueling in the corridors is not permitted, and anyone found doing so will be punished accordingly. Mr. Filch also has a list of banned items on his door which I encourage you all to look over at some point in the next few weeks. 

“Anyone who would like to try out for their House Quidditch team should give their name to their house heads. They will be provided with dates for the try-outs and other such necessary information.

I would also like to introduce a new member of staff this year, Professor Lunly who has kindly agreed to take over the position of Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher.”

“I wonder what happened to Old Rigby,” Sirius interrupted again.

“Shut up, will you?” Remus told him.

“As some of you may be aware, the wizard who calls himself Lord Voldemort” (several people in the hall gasped. Peter jumped so badly he moved the entire bench underneath them)   
“has officially become a threat as classified by the Ministry of Magic over the summer. For this reason Hogwarts will be subject to a series of much more advanced protections than in previous years. I do not want students to feel afraid. While at Hogwarts you will all be perfectly safe. These new precautions should do nothing to hinder the education of any of you while you are here this year. Now, I wish all of you a good night.”

As soon as he had finished speaking the buzz of students in the hall grew back into a dull roar. Stepping out from his seat, Sirius yawned, stretching his arms above his head. A strip of skin peaked out from beneath his shirt. Remus looked away. When the four of them got back into their dormitory at the top of Gryffindor Tower, Remus quickly put on his pajamas closed the curtains around himself and dropped to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Like, comment, etc, etc... much love,  
> -1TruFangirl


	3. Sirius' Secret

Sirius waited in his bedroom, tapping subconsciously on his bedpost. The bowtie around his neck was uncomfortably tight and his dress robes made him feel out of place and uncomfortable. It was only a matter of minutes before his mother shoved Kreacher up the stairs to come find him. Or even worse, she came up to drag him down the stairs herself.

Sirius had locked his bedroom door. Not that it would keep out his mother, or the creepy house elf. Still, it was one more barrier between him and the dinner that was currently happening downstairs. He stared at his reflection in the window. His hair looked awful. His mom had forced him to cut it, and while it wasn’t so short by her standards, compared to how he usually wore it, it looked horrible. And it would take several months for it to grow back. He ruffled it up irately, trying to make it seem less proper.

Sirius whipped around to the heavy footsteps coming up the stairs. Someone pounded against the door. Then with a bang, the door was thrown open. His mother.

“Sirius Orion Black, get back downstairs this instant,” she said shrilly. When, rather than following her out the door, he took a step backwards, she marched into his room, grabbed him by the shoulder and pulled him along with her, her fingernails digging into his shoulder hard enough to break the skin, and shoved him down the stairs in front of her. He barely managed to avoid falling on the face by grabbing the railing and throwing himself against the wall.

“Get a move on,” his mother snapped. Grudgingly, Sirius continued down the stairs, shaking his hair from his face once more for good measure.

The drawing room was full of people Sirius hated. Old families, people he’d met and disliked, people he’d never met, but knew he disliked anyway. Abraxas Malfoy and his pig of a son Lucius were there. The blond boy was near his age. They had gone to school together for a few years, but Malfoy and his family were about as Slytherin as one could get. Sirius scowled when he notice Malfoy was talking to his little brother Regulus.  
Regulus: his perfect brother, everything that Sirius wasn’t. Regulus was a Slytherin like everyone else in the Black family. Regulus embraced his pureblood status and the prejudices that came with it. Regulus was cruel and muggle-hating just like he was supposed to be. And Regulus was not a disappointment. And Malfoy, the only son and heir of the family. Also happy to be a bigoted git. Both boys looked up at him when he came in the room. Malfoy smirked, Regulus…Sirius couldn’t read the expression on his brother’s face.

An old crotchety man in billowing navy cloak approached him with a crooked smile. “Young Master Black,” he said—even his voice sounded like a precariously built tower of wood about to crash down on top of them. “What a pleasure it is to meet you at last. The black sheep of the family, so to speak, ha, ha. That certainly seems to be accurate. I’m told you were sorted into Gryffindor, is that true as well?”

“Yes, sir,” Sirius said stiffly, already he hated the man, who was now cackling at Sirius gripping his silver cane in both his gnarled hands. “Excuse me, sir, I’ve been rather meaning to speak with, er—,” Sirius let his sentence trail off as he left the man behind, shuddering slightly.

“Come back here, boy, I wasn’t finished with you.”

Reluctantly, Sirius turned back.

“Take this, I have no use for it, though I get the feeling you will quite soon.” And the old man stuffed a small leather pouch into Sirius’ hands. Sirius pulled open the strings to look inside. It was filled with gold Galleons.

“What are you giving me this f—?” he started, but the man had already disappeared into the crowd. Sirius stared at the place where the man had been. Had he imagined the conversation? Surely the man couldn’t have moved away that quickly? And Sirius didn’t even know who he was. Still, the pouch of Galleons in his hand was proof that the man had been there. Unnerved, Sirius pocketed the money and moved on.

His cousins, Bellatrix, Narcissa and Andromeda stood gossiping together in a corner. Andromeda, at least, had that dignity to look slightly uncomfortable with their topic of discussion, and though Sirius couldn’t hear the conversation he was convinced it could be nothing good.

Much of the evening when by smoothly. Sirius spent much of it hiding behind furniture, sipping some alcoholic drink from a glass adorned with the Black family crest. No one else approached him, and Sirius didn’t make and attempt to talk to anyone. Until he heard something he didn’t expect from a group of people standing just in front of the chair he was using as his latest refuge.

“It’s only a matter of time now before the Dark Lord seizes full control. The ministry can’t do much against him and Dumbledore, can’t keep him at bay for much longer,” said the voice of his mother.

“Do you think so?” Sirius would recognize that drawl anywhere. The other person in the conversation was Malfoy’s mother. “I imagine it’s inevitable, but surely a few years at least. Or is the Dark Lord really that powerful already?”

“Oh, he’s powerful. And soon the world will be rid of ever muggle and mudblood on this earth you mark my words. It will be real witches and wizards, purebloods who have real power again by the time the Dark Lord is done, just you wait. Sirius dropped his drink, glass shattering over the floor, jumping out from behind the chair so quickly he tripped and fell on the broken glass at his feet. His mother shrieked. He bit his lip against the pain of several sharp shards of glass pushing up into his palm.

“Don’t use that word,” said Sirius, when he had recovered his dignity, fuming.

“What was that?” his mother snapped.

“I said, don’t use that word. ‘Mudblood.’ Don’t use it.”

“I’ll use that word whenever I damn-well please. This world could do without the filthy mudblood scum and blood traitors you seem to call friends.” She got closer to him, holder her finger up as though accusing him of some heinous crime.

“Yeah? Well, I’m proud to be their friends. There’s nothing wrong with being muggle-born and it’s disgusting that no one in this room gets that.”

“You will not insult me in my own house, Sirius Orion Black.” Everyone in the room had gone quiet and turned to watch the spectacle.

“Shut up!” Sirius shouted. “Shut—ouch!” His mother had slapped him across the face, sending him staggering into the chair he had previously been hiding behind.

“Go back to your room,” she snarled. “It was a mistake to have you down here in the first place.” Clenching his teeth together and glaring at his mother, Sirius turned and  
stalked off, clutching his good hand to his face and breathing heavily. Not a single person moved to help him or looked in horror at how his parents had treated him. Some of them even stared contemptuously at him as though he had been in the wrong. Sirius wasn’t surprised. 

He stormed up the stairs, hot angry tears spilling from his eyes. He’d had enough. He slammed his bedroom door when he went in, stripped off his dress robes and kicked open his school trunk. He stuffed as many things as he could fit inside, school clothes, the posters that hadn’t been stuck permanently to his wall, all his books, his cauldron and potions kit, and several years’ worth of personal effects he’d collected form his friends while at Hogwarts. Quickly he donned and old, holey t-shirt, a pair of black ripped up jeans and his tattered black trainers and stuck his wand in his pocket.

Sirius thrust open his bedroom window and warm, muggy air spilled into his bedroom. Cursing his inability to use magic, Sirius carefully lowered his trunk to the ground using the sheets and duvet from his bed, then he climbed down after on the uneven brick wall. By the time he got to the bottom, his fingers burned and his palm stung. It was sticky with blood, but Sirius ignored it. He picked up his trunk and left without looking back. He hadn’t even bothered to close the window.

At the road, he pulled his wand from his pocket and stuck it out in from of him. The bang a few seconds later made him flinch. He hoped the people inside Grimmauld place hadn’t heard. Sirius stuffed his trunk and a galleon into the conductor’s hands and scrambled onto the Knight Bus.

“Get me away from here as fast as possible. I want to go to the Potter’s Manor. It’s not too far from here.”

“As you wish, sir,” said the conductor, he seemed transfixed by the galleon in his hand. Coming to his senses, he knocked hastily on the driver’s window and gave him Sirius’  
desired location, and with a bang, they were gone.

“Is there anything else I can do for you sir?” The conductor asked. Sirius shook his head.  
Several minutes later, they were outside a long dusty path that lead to a grand looking manor house standing alone in a massive garden lined with tall, crisply manicured trees.

“This is as far as we can take you, sir,” the conductor told him, handing Sirius his trunk and looking apprehensively out the window at the raging storm, as though genuinely worried for the boy.

“Here’s fine, thank you,” Sirius said. He took his trunk and stepped out of the bus. One loud bang later and the huge purple bus was gone. Sirius was standing alone outside his best friend’s house in the pouring rain, his heart pounding frantically. Sirius dragged his trunk up the dirt path. He could see James’ bedroom window from where he stood, even through the rain. Lightning flashed across the sky, followed closely by a deafening clap of thunder.

James’ window was on the second floor. It was an easy clime for Sirius though, he couldn’t see yet how he would get his trunk up. He tucked it under a bush protected from the rain and from the sight of anyone who might be coming outside in the morning and began to scale the wall. Perching on the window sill, Sirius knocked hard on the window. A few seconds later, Sirius saw the face off his best friend looking confused and disheveled peering out the window at him. James’ face went from groggy bewilderment to alarm in seconds. Relief flooded Sirius’ mind. James unlatched the window and threw it wide open, and Sirius, sopping wet and nearly sobbing, tumbled inside.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Like, Comment, etc, etc... Much Love,  
> -1TruFangirl


	4. Professor Lunly

Sirius woke abruptly from the nightmare, sitting up with a start. Sunlight filtered through the crack in the curtains pulled lazily around his four-poster and it took him a minute to remember that he was at Hogwarts.

“Are you alright, Sirius?” Remus asked softly from the bed beside his, already half-dressed in his school uniform.

“Yeah,” said Sirius, “Bad dream.” He rubbed his eyes, running his fingers through his hair. It had grown back while he had been at James house. Shaking the memory from his head, Sirius swung his legs over the side of his bed, shoved aside the curtains and stretched, then bent down, rummaging through his trunk for his clothes. He felt a prickle on the back of his neck, and when he looked up, Remus was still looking at him. Remus quickly looked away and Sirius’ heart twanged a bit. He didn’t need Remus of all people feeling sorry for him.

“I really am fine, Moony, I just had a weird nightmare is all.”

“What? Oh, yeah. Good.”

Sirius moved around his bed, picked up a pillow and chucked it into the bed on his other side. There was yelp and James emerged, hair mussed, looking rather alarmed.

“Time to get up, Prongise!” said Sirius. Grumbling, James got out of bed. His pajamas were just as rumpled as his hair. His left pant leg had gotten stuck, bunched around his knee, and his shirt was buttoned up the wrong way. Sirius raised an eyebrow. James looked down and rolled his eye, then unbuttoned his shirt and began preparing for the day too.

Peter, who had obviously been woken by James shout, poked his head out of his curtains, got tangle and tumbled off the bed onto the ground. Everyone laughed, though Peter looked slightly disgruntled.

Breakfast was an oddly quiet affair. There was a strange tension in the air and Sirius didn’t know how to break it. Not even James had stood up to declare his love for Lily Evans. McGonagall gave the four of them an odd look as she handed out their schedules, but she didn’t say anything.

“Transfiguration first,” Remus commented at last, looking at his schedule.

“Oooh, Minnie first period on a Monday,” Sirius said, wincing. “Have you decided when quidditch tryouts with be, Prongs?”

“Not yet, why? You’re not trying out, are you?”

“I don’t know, I did a lot of practicing over the summer. I figured I might give it a shot.” James looked incredulously at Sirius for a moment, then seemed to realize that he probably shouldn’t express doubt in his friends. Sirius leaned back from the table, a hand on his breast. “I’m wounded, Prongs, wounded.” And just like that the tension was gone. Had Sirius imagined it?

Professor McGonogall’s room was nearly empty when they got there.

“Ah, there you boys are, take a seat.” She said as she shuffled around the room, gathering papers and making her way back to her desk.

The four of them took their seats at the front of the class all in a line. Sirius sat down between Remus and James and Peter sat on James’ other side.

“I’m impresses Mr. Pettigrew, I wasn’t sure you would be able to score high enough on your Transfiguration OWL to move on to NEWT level in my class. I suppose the three of you had something to do with it?” she asked.

“We all studied together,” said Remus. Sirius smirked. Yeah, they studied together, they also managed to turn James, Peter and himself into animagi to accompany Remus on the full moon. There was no way any of them was going to fail that OWL. James especially had never failed a Transfiguration exam in his life.

Even by the time bell rang the classroom was only half-full. 

“As you can see,” Professor McGonogall told them. “This class is much smaller than all of your previous Transfiguration classes with me. I have taken only those students with Exceeds Expectation or higher on their OWL exams. This class will be one of the hardest classes you will take this year.” (Peter moaned softly.) “I expect nothing less than your best on all homework assignments and exams. The content we will be learning in this class will be difficult, but I trust you all have the ability to keep up. Among other topics, this year we will be learning primarily human Transfiguration, which is of course among the most difficult kind of magic known today.”

McGonogall continued to explain the class and lay out a schedule for most of the next half hour. By the time they were done, she had assigned an essay on theory of human transfiguration and three chapters of reading from their textbooks.

They were met with very similar reactions from most of their other teachers too. Flitwick informed them that they would be learning some of the most advanced charms he taught. Slughorn told then they would be working with more dangerous and volatile potions. In History of Magic, Remus informed them even he had trouble understanding Binns.

“We have three essays, four textbook chapters, we have collect all these ingredients for Slughorn, and we have to practice Silencing charms and stunning spells for Flitwick and it’s only lunch,” Sirius groaned as they followed the crowd into the Great Hall.

“We have our first Defense Against the Dark Arts lesson next,” Peter said when they had finished.

“I wonder what Lunly will be like?” said Sirius.

“Well, we won’t have to wait long.” James led them all around a corner to Lunly’s classroom, checking his schedule to make sure he had gotten the room correct. There was a larger group of students in Professor Lundy’s class than there had been in any of their other classes. Professor Lundy stood at the top of the class on top of his desk, smiling and waiting for everyone to file in.

“Weird bloke, isn’t he?” Peter muttered.

“Certainly seems that way,” Sirius replied. He didn’t take his eyes off the professor as they found four empty seats and sat down.

“Let’s hope he knows what he’s doing,” said Remus. “After five different professors in as many years, I’ve begun to lose hope that there’s anyone competent left.” Sirius snorted.

“Welcome to my class students, I trust you are all well?” Professor Lunly called from atop his desk. He was tall and willowy and his voice was surprisingly powerful. “As I understand it you have had a number of teachers in this course, so the material you’ve covered is rather inconsistent, is that correct?” Several people nodded, many just stared at Lunly as though he were insane. Towering over the class as he was, Sirius conceded that he looked it. “First I would like to ask you, who can tell me the difference between a curse, a hex and a jinx?” Sirius was sure at one point that he had read something about the difference between the three types of spells were, but he couldn’t recall them now. Remus probably knew. Remus always knew. Sure enough, when no one else had raised their hand, Lunly asked, “No one?” Remus dragged his fingers through his hair and stuck his hand in the air.

“Yes, Mr…?”

“Lupin, sir.”

A flicker of realization flashed across Lunly’s face as he said, “Ah, Mr. Lupin. Well? You have an answer for me?”

“Jinxes, hexes and curses are all part of a family of spells intended to have a negative effect on the recipient. Each has a varying level of severity, with jinxes being only irritating in most cases and curses ranging from stong negative effects, to severe dark magic such as the three unforgivable curses.”

“Very good, Mr. Lupin, they told me you were a bright boy, very well, ten points to Gryffindor.” Remus stiffened slightly at Lunly’s words. Clearly the rest of the staff had told Professor Lunly about Remus’… condition. Sirius nudged Remus gently in the shoulder, and Remus relaxed again.

“As Mr. Lupin so eloquently put it just now, jinxes, hexes and curses are all part specific group of spells that have a negative effect on the person they are used on. The purpose of this class is to learn these spells, what they do and how they can be defended against. 

“As I walk around the classroom, I want each student to give me a curse, jinx or hex. Perhaps it’s one you know, perhaps it’s your favorite spell. Perhaps it’s something you’ve used on a fellow student.” Here, Lunly winked, stepping down from his desk at last. “A point will be awarded to the house of any student who can also give me the counter-curse. No repeats, please.”

“Well, so far no one’s come at risk of dying so that puts him above the last professor already.” Sirius leaned into Remus, whispering in his ear. Remus chuckled over the silence. Lunly, now at the back of the room paused for a moment, looking up expectantly. Remus smothered his laughter and Lunly turned back to the student he was talking to.  
They made their way to the door at the bell, and just as they reached it, Professor Lunly called, “Mr. Lupin, if I could talk to you for a moment. Sirius watched the smile slide off Remus’ face and he walked slowly back over to Lunly, reluctantly. Sirius, James and Peter hung back by the door to wait.

“If the three of you could leave please? Don’t you have classes to get to? Don’t worry, I have your friend in good hands.”

“But sir,” Sirius started, “You can’t just—,”

“I’m afraid that I can, Mr…”

“Black. And why can’t we wait here? What’s so important that—,”

“Leave it, Sirius,” James interrupted, tugging on Sirius’ arms. Fuming, Sirius allowed James and Peter to pull him from the room.

“What’s the matter with you, Padfoot? Lunly just wants to talk to him. It’s not like he’s going to abduct Moony or anything.”

“I don’t trust the man. You heard what he said earlier, didn’t you?”

“I heard a man saying a perfectly ordinary thing to Remus about how smart he was. No one aside from us was ever going to figure out that Remus was a werewolf from just that.”

“I…” Sirius was saved the embarrassment of having to struggle through a solid argument by the door opening and Remus coming back out, looking a little overwhelmed, but  
otherwise, unharmed.

“What did he say, Rem?” asked James.

“He just told me that he used to work in St. Mungo’s treating mostly magical creature bites and that he’d seen a few werewolves before and that if I needed anything I could come  
and talk to him.”

“There, you see, Sirius? Lunly just wanted to talk.” Sirius felt his face heating up.

“C’mon,” Sirius said awkwardly. “What have we got next?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, I forgot to update yesterday, I'm sorry!! But better late than never, and I might post another chapter tomorrow just because it's Christmas.  
> Like, comment, etc, etc... much love  
> -1TruFangirl


	5. The Full Moon

Remus was exhausted. The first week of the school year had been taxing, with the mountain of homework they had been set by their teachers. It didn’t help that it also happened to be the week leading up to the full moon. Tonight was going to be hell, but at least his friends would be there. 

“Have you set a date for quidditch tryouts yet?” Sirius asked as the four of them walked down the corridor.

“This coming Friday. McGonogall and I agreed that would be the most convenient time, and if Remus here wants to come and watch he should be well recovered from tonight.

“Wouldn’t miss it,” said Remus, glancing briefly at Sirius. Sirius smiled back. Remus’ next words caught in his throat, coming out as a squeak. He flushed. Sirius frowned at him.

“Are you alright, Moony?”

“Just tired,” he muttered, silently cursing himself. He’d known how he felt for several years now, but that didn’t mean he had to let Sirius in on the secret. Someone slammed into Remus’ shoulder, jarring him from his Reflection.

“Watch it, werewolf.” Snape muttered as he went by. 

“Hey, why don’t you watch it, Snivellus,” Sirius snapped, wheeling around, his wand already in his hand. Alarm shot through Remus’ limbs, and he grabbed Sirius by the elbow, trying to hold him back.

“Padfoot, don’t bother. He’s—,”

“If you tell me he’s not worth it, Moony, I’ll hit you,” Sirius replied, voice strained as he pulled against Remus’ grip on his arm. Snape watched with a mixture of apprehension and loathing, his want in his hand now too. He slowly took several steps backward. Other people in the corridor were looking curiously at the scene as they passed. “He might not be, but you are.” Sirius jerked away, aiming a hex at Snape. Remus’ stomach plummeted to his feet. 

“No!” James cried, leaping after Sirius in an attempt to tackle him to the ground. Snape dodged Sirius’ spell and fired his own back. Snape’s curse missed Sirius by several feet and hit Remus in the face instead, leaving a thin gash across Remus’ cheek. He whipped his fingers to his face and drew it away scarlet. James changed his course, launching himself at Snape instead.

Snape threw up a shield charm, and James bounced off it. He stumbled back into Remus, blood leaking from his nose. Sirius fired another series of cursed at Snape, they bounced off his shield and hit the ceiling. A chandelier fell from the ceiling, forcing Snape to hurdle out of the way; his shield charm broke. Snape scrambled to his feet, hair disheveled, robes askew and wand still held before him. His next curse hit James in the chest, flinging him backwards into the ground. Sirius retaliated. Snape’s legs snapped together and he toppled to the ground in the rubble of the chandelier.

“Padfoot, stop!” Remus yelled, torn between holding Sirius back and trying to help James, who still lay on the floor, moaning softly. Sirius turned to look at Remus and James, and Snape hit him from behind. Sirius tumbled into Remus’ arms.

“What in heaven’s name is going on here?” The shrill voice of Professor McGonagall echoed down the corridor. Remus looked up to see her glaring down through her glasses at them, he lips pursed and her arms crossed. “The four of you, in my office immediately. Mr. Snape, I suggest you visit your head of house.” She turned around and marched back the way she had come, without looking to see if the four of them were following. Remus righted Sirius; the pair of them pulled James to his feet and the four of them made their way ambling slowly after McGonagall all the way to her office.

They arrayed themselves in from of her desk. She sat in the chair behind it.

James’ nose dripped blood onto the floor. Remus longed to wipe away the blood oozing into his collar. A purple bruise had begun to blossom by Sirius’ eyebrow. The four of them waited awkwardly while McGonagall shuffled the papers irritably around her desk.

“I have never…” she began, looking up at them at last. “Seen such a heinous display of dueling in the corridors from four of my own students.” They all glanced at each other, none of them daring to look up at McGonagall. “We are a week into the new semester and think it fit to be brawling with each other in the corridor.”

“Technically it was Snape who--,”

“I don’t care who started it, Mr. Black. Think of what kind of example are you setting for younger students.”

“Professor—,”

“I don’t want to hear another word out of you, Mr. Black. Ten points from each of you, and all four of you will be serving detention tonight.

“The full moon, Professor.” Remus said quietly.

Professor McGonagall sighed. “Very well. Mr. Lupin, you will serve your detention another night. As for the rest of you, I will see you in my office at eight o’clock this evening. You should get yourselves to the hospital wing. I do not want to see any more dueling from any of you.”

“Yes ma’am,” said Peter and Remus at the same time. Sirius and James each nodded agreement and McGonagall dismissed them.

“You just had to, didn’t you, Pads? You couldn’t just let it go?”

“He insulted you, I couldn’t just—.”

“I’ve been insulted before. I’ve had a lot more thrown at me than insults and I don’t need you to defend me. Now you’ve landed yourself in detention on the full moon.”

“I’m sorry, Rem, I didn’t think—.”

“No, you’re right, you didn’t think. You did not think at all, you made a rash decision and now we’re paying for it.”

“He started it…”

“I don’t care who started it, you shouldn’t have continued it.” Remus’ blood boiled, he subconsciously balled his hands into fists, his fingers digging into his palm. He didn’t quite understand what had made him so angry, but right now he didn’t want to look at Sirius, he couldn’t.

He hurried ahead of his friends and disappeared into the hospital wing.

////////////////

Madam Pomfery led him down to the grounds, the Whomping Willow swayed gently in the chilly September air. The sunset threw reds and oranges and pinks of different shades across the night sky. Madam Pomfery immobilized the tree and ushered Remus inside, a gentle hand on his back. It had spent the entire summer transforming alone in his bedroom in his parents cottage. Somehow though, this, facing it alone at Hogwarts was different. He had been expecting to spend this night in the company of his friends and now doing it alone…

“You’ll be alright, now?” Madam Pomfery asked. She always did. Remus nodded. “And I’ll come and get you in the morning.” Again, Remus nodded. It had been the same every full moon for five years.

When she left, Remus turned to the tattered bed in the corner. He slowly unbuttoned his shirt, turning around and surveying the claw marks and the gouges in the wood of the walls that he had made over the years of his transformations. He slipped his legs out of his trousers and sat in nothing but his underwear on the bed, shivering in the draft. He drew the blanket on bed around his shoulders and waited,

This was the worst part, the waiting. He didn’t know when the moon would set, when he would transform, but as the minutes ticked by he began to feel the terror setting into his bones. It had never been so bad when James, Peter and Sirius—especially Sirius—had been there. He had always know with them that it wouldn’t be so bad. Even over the summer Remus had been able to prepare. He’s known he’d be alone and he had prepared for it.

But he had expected his friends to be here tonight and they had gone and landed themselves in detention, and now he was completely and utterly alone. A slight tingling started in his fingers. It was starting.

The tingling got sharper, more painful. It spread form his fingers to his palms, up his arms and throughout his body. It turned into nothing short of agony. Agony he knew well. Agony that was sharpened by the absence of the people who loved him, and the people who had disappointed  
him. They had disappointed him. He understood why he was angry. The pain became unbearable. He began to transform.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Merry Christmas to everyone who celebrates it. I'm a few minutes late. But what's a few minutes?  
> Comment, like, etc, etc...  
> much love,  
> -1TruFangirl
> 
> Edit: I realized that the word elephant was just there in the middle of the chapter. It wasn't doing much for the story, so I changed it.


	6. Chocolate Won't Fix Everyhting

Even in wolf form, Remus had been distant. They had gotten to the shrieking shack just after midnight. Remus was curled up on the floor, whimpering. He snarled when they entered, struggling to push himself up. Blood welled in the long scratches latticing his back and sides. Remus collapsed back down to the floor. Sirius padded forward, going to lap at the wolf’s wounds, but Remus snapped his jaws and Sirius backed off, tail between his legs. Remus’ attitude had pretty much been the same the entire night.

Sirius drew his legs up to his chest. The bed creaked underneath him. The sound seemed to echo off the walls. The three of them sat in their dormitory, the first dregs of sunlight streaming through the window. The moon had set nearly two hours ago, but it was still too early for them to go down to the hospital wing. None of them had gone to sleep. They had been sitting in miserable silence for the better part of the early morning, curtains pulled away from their beds, avoiding eye-contact with each other.

“Madam Pomfery should let us in soon,” James murmured, checking his watch.

“If he even wants to see us,” replied Sirius bitterly.

“Of course he will,” said Peter. He didn’t sound particularly sure.

“You have nothing to worry about, Peter, you didn’t actually do anything. James and I, we’re reckless and we can’t control ourselves.” Sirius let himself fall back against his headboard. His eyes fell of the chocolates he had insisted they bring Remus. He’d made them all sneak into Hogsmede to steal them from Honeydukes. Sirius had promised he’d pay for them on the next Hogsmede trip. Now the chocolates sat on his bedside table. It wasn’t close to enough to make up for his mistake.

“C’mon, it’s Remus, he’ll be mad for a bit, then he’ll forgive you, like he always does.”

“He forgives me for stupid things.”

“If he can forgive you for nearly killing Sn—,”

“I thought we agreed not to talk about that again.”

“If he can forgive you for that, he can forgive you for getting into detention on the full moon. He’ll understand you just make a mistake.”

“What if… what if I’ve cross the limit? What if I’ve surpassed the number of stupid things he can forgive me for? What if he’s had it with me and he can’t forgive me again?”

James’ silence was not reassuring.

“We can probably go see him now.” James said at last. Sirius swung himself sullenly off the bed, grabbing the chocolates as he left. 

The castle was barely awake. The common room was empty except for a lithe black cat sitting on the arm of a chair, basking in the dying embers of the fire. The corridors were empty as well. They met no one on their way to the hospital wing.

Madam Pomphery greeted them at the door.

“He says he expects you all to come, but I must impress on you that he is not to be too disturbed.” And she let them in.

The others, at least, seemed encouraged that Remus decided he wanted visitors. Sirius on the other hand, felt a knot of apprehension building in his stomach. James had to remind   
him to stop crushing Remus’ chocolates.

Remus was sitting up in the last bed in the hospital wing, reading a book. He didn’t look up when they came in, but his eyes stopped moving across the page. White bandages   
peaked through his pajama shirt, and his face looked a little pale, but otherwise, he was little worse off than he would’ve been any other full moon. Madam Pomfery, at least, had done a good job patching him up.

“Good Morning, Moony.” James said tentatively. Remus looked up, doing a very poor imitation of appearing as though he had just noticed them.

“Oh, good morning, James,” he said, setting his book down in his lap.

“We brought chocolate.”

Sirius stepped forward and held the box out to Remus who took it tenderly.

He didn’t look at Sirius.

“We’re really sorry we left you alone on the full moon, Rem,” said James.

“You came eventually.”

Sirius tapped is fingers on his thigh mirroring the nervous rhythm of his heart. Remus looked down, fingering the pages of his book. Somewhere on the grounds an owl hooted.

“I’m sorry for starting that fight with Snape. It was irresponsible and reckless and stupid. You were right. I wasn’t thinking. I know you don’t need protection from me, and these   
chocolates really don’t make up for what James and I did. I’m sorry, Moony,” Sirius said.

Never had silence sounded so loud. Remus continued to stare at his lap. Sirius wiped his palms on his trousers.

“Look, Moony,” he tried again, “I know what I did was wrong. I know I shouldn’t have done something so reckless right around the full moon. I’m really sorry. I’ll try harder next time.”

“You’ll try,” Remus said.

“Yes.”

Remus scoffed. “It was very nice of you all to come visit me. Thank you for the chocolates.”

“What?” asked Sirius, a low growl building in his throat, drowning out his pounding heart. “Remus I said I was sorry, I can’t do much more than that.” Remus refused to break eye   
contact with his knees. “For God’s sake Remus, would you just look at me?”

Finally, Remus glanced up. The look on his face was like a knife to the gut.

“I told you not to do it and you did anyway,” he said in a low voice.

“Yeah, well I don’t always have to listen to everything you say, Moony.”

“No? Is it too much for me to ask that once a month you keep yourself out of trouble for me, Black? Is that really too much for you to handle.”

“You can’t say I haven’t kept myself out of trouble for you, Lupin. I made a mistake, and I’m sorry for it.”

“Maybe sorry won’t cut it this time. Maybe I’ve had enough of you, Sirius Black.”

Sirius felt the air as it was sucked out of his lungs. “What about James, you seem to have forgiven him.”

“He didn’t curse Snape because he decided he need to defend my honor.”

“You said you didn’t care who started it.”

“Well then I was wrong. I do care. Might I remind you, if it wasn’t for you, Snape wouldn’t even know I’m a werewolf?”

Sirius stopped. “You know Moony, I would have thought someone as smart as you would have recognized the flaw in your argument. I said I was sorry. What more do you need me to do?”

Remus didn’t answer, didn’t even open his mouth. Sirius didn’t care. He turned sharply on his heel and marched out the hospital wing door. As it closed behind him, he heard the box of chocolates he’d gotten for Remus hit the opposite wall. He balled his hands into fists. And walked. He didn’t know where he was going, only that he was getting as far away from the hospital wing as he could get. He heard no footsteps. He didn’t know if James and Peter had stayed with Remus longer, if they were still with him, or if they had gone back to the common room hoping find him, but at least they hadn’t followed him.

Sirius had apologized many times over for the incident with Snape and the Whomping Willow. He had endured Remus’ disappointment for weeks over it. And he had hated it the whole time. But they had promised, once Remus had forgiven him, to never bring it up. And the fact that Remus had tried to use it in an argument against him? That felt like something had exploded in his chest. For Remus to stoop so low…

Cold air cut Sirius’ face. He was at the top of the Astronomy Tower overlooking the grounds. The lake, the Forbidden Forest, he could even see Hogsmede in the distance. I glanced over it once and decided he detested the view. Then Sirius sat down against the wall and buried his head in his arms.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm late again, because I'm a huge effing procrastinator!!  
> This chapter's a little bit short.  
> I'm going to be doing some editing of the previous chapters (Nothing too major, just typos and grammar and stuff) so there may or may not be a new chapter next week.  
> Comment, like, etc, etc...  
> much love,  
> -1TruFangirl


	7. Quidditch Tryouts

The wind whipped Sirius’ hair into his eyes. His fingers had begun to go numb around his broom handle. James was up in the air chasing scarlet robes down and pointing them back to the ground so the tryouts could begin. Half a dozen other students waited beside Sirius. Sirius glanced up at the stands. Several people sat there, including Peter, but Remus was not among them.

“I don’t think he’s coming mate.” James said, jumping off his broom and landing beside Sirius gracefully.

“I…” What had he expected? Four days of utter silence and then Remus would show up to the Quidditch tryouts and everything would be fixed? “I thought at least he’d come for you.”

“Doesn’t look like it, sorry.” James patted him on the shoulder and left the stand at the head of the group.

“Alright everyone!” he said. “I need you all to get into two groups. One, over on my left for beaters, another over here for those of you who are trying out to be keeper. Sirius shuffled over to James’ left. He was followed by three other people. The girl closest to him was taller than he was. She had muscular arms and broad shoulders. Sirius wiped his palms on his pants.

“Keepers first. I would like you all to first show me a lap around the pitch on your brooms. The three students trying out for keeper mounted their brooms and waited for a nervous second, each glancing around the see if the other two were doing the same, and who was going to kick off into the air first. In the end it was a young girl Sirius had seen a few times in the corridors. She made a clean circle around the pitch and touched back down lightly where she had started. The other two, followed her lead. The first made it around the pitch, hunched over the handle of his broom, clinging to it as though his life depended on it. The other managed to get all the way around, before slipping off the back of his broom onto his butt in the wet grass as he tried to land his broom. Sirius stifled his laughter into his sleeve. James glared at him. 

James directed them towards the hoops at the end of the pitch. The next half hour was spent with James throwing the quaffle from various angles at the different hoops while the aspiring keepers tried to block it. Sirius thought it was pretty obvious who was going to become the new keeper, but James said, “Thank you for trying out, the list of the new Gryffindor quidditch team will be posted on the bulletin board Monday morning.”

The girl moved into the stands to watch the rest of the try-outs. The two boys walked away, the first was covered in mud, and the second carried his broom, newly cloven in two in both hands.

James ran his fingers through his hair, pushing it off his forehead and exhaling in a puff of breath before calling, “alright, beaters!” Sirius’ stomach flipped over. He wiped his hands on his jeans again. “If you would all show me a lap around the pitch please.” 

The tall girl beside Sirius was the first to take off. She kicked hard against the ground without hesitation and zipped around the pitch, coming back around and landing before anyone else had even mounted their brooms. Determined not to be so easily outmatched, Sirius kicked off.  
When he got back, James looked slightly alarmed.

“I’m not sure I’ve ever seen you fly that fast, well done, Pads.” James said, patting Sirius on the shoulder and going to talk to the other two students, and they too, made their way around the pitch.

“Very good, everyone. One by one, I want you all to fly up into the air. I’ll have Benjamin,” he gestured to one of the Gryffindor players behind him, “hit bludgers at you. Your task will be to knock them away. Try not to hit Ben. Got it?” Everyone nodded. “Right, you.” James pointed at the other girl in the group. She swallowed and nodded, stepping forward, mounting her broom and flying into the air. Ben and James both followed.

The girl missed the first throw completely. Sirius couldn’t hear what they were saying in the sky above, but on the next one, she hit it. The third bludger nearly knocked Ben off his broom. On the fourth she nearly dove off her broom to hit the bludger. Sirius heard her yelp from the ground. James, however, applauded when she managed to regain her balance and stay on her broom. She missed the fifth throw. Seconds later, they dropped down onto the grass. James’ eyebrows made creases on his forehead.  
The second person was a skinny fourth year named Marcus Rose. Sirius only remembered him because during his sorting, Marcus had tripped up the dais to the sorting hat, and ripped off his robes. Sirius passed him in the halls sometimes followed by the ringing taunts of his classmates. If there was any way to shake off the nickname “Mark-arse” Sirius supposed it was by coming a quidditch star. Not that Marcus looked like he was capable of it.

Marcus was a fair flyer, but on the first few throws he barely managed to hit the bludger away. Halfway through, Marcus accidentally let go of the bat and the bludger smashed him in the nose, sending him tumbling off his broom to the ground. James dove down just in time to catch him before hit the grass, grabbing him by the elbow and lowering him gently down. He dropped to his knees with a thump and curled up on the ground, whimpering.

Grimacing, James dismounted his broom, and knelt beside Marcus, attempting to roll him over. Sirius leaned in to catch a glimpse of the damage. Marcus’ face was covered in blood. It gushed from his nose, down his chin. It was smeared all over his hand that was clutched to his face. The other, the one that James had grabbed to slow his fall was   
sticking out at am ugly angle. Sirius winced. James pressed the heel of his palm to his brow, sighing dramatically.

“Spencer, would you take him to the hospital wing?” James asked, pointing to the team member nearest him, his fellow chaser. Spencer tried to pry Marcus put of the fetal position and to his feet. When his attempt proved unsuccessful, he pulled Marcus into his arms and carried him off the field. Marcus’ moans faded slowly.  
James turned back to Sirius and the muscular girl beside him.

“Okay. What’s your name?” James asked the girl.

“Esme Peck,” she responded, pulling her dark hair back and tying it behind her head.

“Thank you, if you would…” James gestured to the sky and the two took off.

The first bludger zipped below her, and she dived down to smack it with enough force to send it all the way across the pitch. She hit the next one through the stands—thankfully on the side where no other students. She hit the third and fourth away too, on one turn performing a maneuver that involved turning upside-down and barely managing to hit the bludger with the end of the bat. The fifth one she missed—barely. Sirius’ grip on his broom had turned his knuckles white. His fingers had started cramping.

“Thank you, Esme. The results will be posted in the Gryffindor common room on Monday morning.” Smiling, Esme nodded and left, smiling good naturedly at Sirius as she went   
by. Sirius barely managed to smile back.

“Sirius. It’s your turn.” James said. Sirius shifted his weight from foot to foot, trying to stretch out his fingers. He grabbed the beater’s bat from James.

“You alright mate?”

“Fine.” He mounted his broom and kicked off the ground. The wind ripped through his robes, scraping at his skin. He felt goosebumps erupt down his arms. He adjusted his grip on the bat and turned to face Ben. Ben released the bludger and it sped towards him. Instinctively, Sirius whipped the bat in front of his face and knocked the bludger out of the way, remembering the out some strength behind the hit at the last second. The bludger sailed over Ben’s head. James cheered, then quickly stopped, remembering he was   
supposed to be impartial. Ben used his wand to recapture the bludger.

The second bludger, Sirius beat away with even less trouble. James managed to contain his whooping.

On the third Sirius lurched sideways to smack it back at Ben. He flinched as it sailed past Ben’s ear and Ben ducked to avoid it.

“Sorry!” Sirius called. Ben waved off the apology as he rose back to Sirius’ height.

Over the summer, James had helped James learn to fly. They had played in James’ yard with apples and a stick. James’ words echoes in his head. Remember to see the ball before you hit it, and then look where you want it to go.

As the fourth ball came towards him, Sirius hefted his bat, and smacked it as hard as he could toward the opposite side of the field. James failed to smother his cheering as it shot through the center hoop. “One more, Pads!”

Sirius caught himself looking for Remus in the stands. Peter cheered enthusiastically; Sirius looked away, clenching his hand around his broom handle so hard he thought it might break. When the bludger came by him he almost missed it, throwing his bat up and knocking the bludger haphazardly away to keep it from hitting him in the face the way it had Marcus.

“Right, that’s it, Sirius. Nice job.”

“Yeah.” Sirius got back to the ground as quickly as he could. His hands were numb. So was his chest. A dull pounding was developing in his head. James dropped down to the ground beside him.

“You guys are free to go,” James said, gesturing to the Gryffindor team as he stowed the balls away in their chest. The team filed away leaving Sirius and James to carry the box to the locker room together.

“Well, I think that first girl, Mallory Wright will be our keeper. The other two could hardly stay on their brooms, so that decision isn’t hard.” James said as they climbed the stairs to the seventh floor.

“As for the beaters, I think the first girl definitely could have been worse, although she lacked confidence, and was by no means a talent. Marcus Rose was a disaster, obviously. I have to say, if she hadn’t missed the last shot, Esme would have been a real threat, but of course I would have wanted you on the team. Still a close second though. Powerful, fair-tempered. I may have to ask her back when Ben leaves next year.”

“Horklump.” Sirius said to the fat lady. The portrait swung open, and Sirius tried to walk through only to run into none other than Remus Lupin.

“Oh, sor—,” Remus started to say. They he stopped. The apology died in his eyes, and his arms tightened around books he was holding. He shoved past the portrait hole, averting his eyes. Sirius stood there for a moment; his hands shook.

“You alright, mate?” asked James.

“Fine.” Sirius pulled at his hair, eyes stinging, then pushed off the edge of the portrait hole and stormed up the stairs. James didn’t follow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm late again, I know. I was on vacation over the weekend and I didn't have Wifi. Next week, I swear the chapter will be on time. I'm also trying really hard to make my chapters longer. (It's not working...) Anyway,  
> Like, Comment, etc, etc...  
> Much love  
> -1TruFangirl


	8. What Happens in the Early Morning

Mum and Dad,  
The first couple weeks have been fantastic. The full moon was a little rough, but no worse than usual, and it’s always nice to have my friends visit me in the hospital wing, usually with chocolate. The teachers have all promised us loads of homework and they’ve certainly delivered, but I’m getting through it all right. Sirius, James and Peter are doing well also, though James and Sirius did manage to land us all in detention the first day back.  
Security here has tightened because of You-Know-Who, but don’t worry about me. There’s nowhere safer than Hogwarts, Dumbledore would have made sure of that, and it hasn’t interrupted school. All in all, I’m doing well, though I miss you.  
Love,  
Remus

Remus stared at the letter he had just taken half an hour to compose. There was nothing else he could think to add. He couldn’t tell if the letter sounded too cheery, but he didn’t want to make his parents worry, or think that there was anything wrong. Before he could change his mind, he slipped it into an envelope and sealed it, standing up from his table in the common room.

Sunlight peaked through the curtains. The window was cracked open and a cool breeze filtered in. The only sound was the distant call of birds and the rustle of leaved from the trees outside. Someone’s cat leapt onto the scarlet armchair beside the dying fire and settled down, mewling contentedly. Otherwise, he was completely alone. He stood and stretched, rolling out his neck and taking a deep breath.

The corridors were as empty as the common room. Or at least they should have been. As he came around the corner he nearly ran headlong into Professor Lunly.

“Remus!” said Lunly. His voice was cheery in a tinny kind of way that made Remus’ eyebrows draw together. “What are you doing awake so early?”

“I was um… I was sending a letter to my parents,” he replied, raising the letter to show Lunly.

“Good, good. Your parents are well, are they?”

“Er, yes, I think so.”

“Ah, good.”

“Professor, what are you doing on the seventh floor?”

“Hm? Oh, nothing of importance. How was the first full moon?”

“It was fine—er—no worse than it usually is. I mean… yeah.” He finished lamely. Lunly hardly seemed to notice.

Listen, I noticed you seem to have a little falling out with your friends. You don’t seem to talk to them as much. Are you all right?”

“Oh, yes, it’s fine. We’re all fine.” Lunly stopped walking and put a hand on Remus’ shoulder, staring at him down his nose.

“Really, Remus? You can tell me the truth you know. I want to be able to help you.”

“I promise, we’re fine. And I appreciate it, but I really don’t need your help.” Lunly looked at him with those intense eyes for another few seconds. The hairs on the back of Remus’ neck stood on end. Then Lunly broke eye contact, and Remus pulled away from him. They had reached the owlery.

To Remus’ dismay, Lunly followed him inside, and watched him while he ushered an owl down from a perch near the ceiling, tied his letter to its leg and carried it to the window. Remus held the bird out on his arm. It spread its wing, flapped for a few seconds and flew away, its weight pushing Remus’ arm down.

Remus barely managed to look at the professor again as they left the owlery. He gave Lunly a weak smile and started down the stairs. Lunly’s footsteps echoes after him.

The sound of muttering filtered down the corridor in front of them. Frowning, Remus rounded the corner, Lunly in tow. At the end of the corridor a group students stood, all  
cloaked in black, whispering to each other, and staring at the wall.

“Can I help you?” Professor Lunly asked loudly. Several of the students jumped and turned. Remus recognized several Slytherins, people he would not trust to be up to anything good, especially huddled together in a dark corridor this early in the morning.

“I’m sorry, Professor, are we doing something against the rules?” Evan Rosier said, his tone snide, and his mouth drawn up in a cruel sneer. Looking around, Remus caught sight of other people he recognized, among them Severus Snape. Snape caught his eye, glaring. He was shorter than most of the boys around him; as a result, Snape looked less intimidating, and more like a child who had been put in time out.

“My apologies, boys, I just thought if you were looking for anything particular, I might be of assistance.” Lunly did a particularly good job of feigning unconcern, but his feet shuffled against the stone floor, and he kept rubbing his fingers together behind his back. The Slytherins continued to gawk at Lunly, who offered up a kind smile. Then Rosier said, “We’re fine professor.”

“If you say so,” Lunly replied, a thin note of doubt creeping into his voice. All too abruptly, Lunly turned and walked past the Sytherin boys and Remus suddenly had to run to keep up with him.

“Are you all right, Professor?” Remus asked when they were out of ear shot.”

“Oh, yes, quite,” said Lunly, picking up his pace. They were walking in the complete wrong direction of the Gryffindor Common Room.

“Professor, where are we going?”

“Oh, nowhere, you shouldn’t come with me.” 

Remus ignored him.

“Professor, what’s wrong?”

“There’s nothing wrong, Mr. Lupin. Everything’s… fine.” Lunly fumbled in his pocket for something as he walked, nearly tripping over his own feet and narrowly missing several suits of armor guarding corners of the castle.

“Michael.” Albus Dumbledore stood in the corridor beside a large golden gargoyle. Lunly stopped rifling through his pocket.

“Albus, good,” he stopped looking for whatever it was in his pocket. “I was just trying to find you, I—what are you still doing here, Lupin?” Lunly sounded genuinely confused.

“Sorry, Professor, I was just going.” He walked away slowly, trying to catch as much of the conversation as he could before he was out of ear-shot. But Dumbledore said, “Come up  
to my office,” and that was the end of what Remus would hear. Defeated, Remus continued along the corridor for a few minutes. He wandered into the library, where he was  
surprised to find Lily working at a table, homework spread out in front of her. She wasn’t doing any of it, but was rather absorbed in a book about potions in the medieval period, a subject Remus was sure Slughorn hadn’t covered. Besides, Lily had probably finished her potions homework long ago. Remus’ stomach sunk at the thought of the eighteen inch potions essay he was putting off.

“Remus,” said Lily without looking up from her book. “Wanna sit down?” Remus pulled up the chair beside her. Lily stuck her quill in her book and set it on top of her homework, putting creases in a piece of parchment that had curled back up into a tube. Remus cringed in spite of himself. Lily yawned. “How are you?”  
“I’m alright.” He gave her a half-smile

“You and Sirius got into a fight didn’t you?”

“Yes.” Remus looked down at his shoes.

“You should make up with him.”

“Why?”

“Because he’s your friend. Because it’s making you miserable not talking to him.”

“He deserves it.”

“Does he?”

Remus clenched his teeth together. “Yes.”

“If you say so.”

He scowled, even as he dug his fingers into his thighs, even as his heart leapt at the mere mention of Sirius Black. He cursed himself for it.

“Remus, you can’t hate him forever.”

“What makes you say that?” Lily sighed, reached forward and grabbed his hand, giving it a light squeeze. There was something in her eyes that unsettled him. She lowered her  
voice to a sympathetic whisper.

“Remus, I see the way you look at him.”

He froze. “What?”

“I’ve known for a while.”

“You’ve known what?”

“For God’s sake, Lupin, stop trying to deny it. I know you like him.”

“Of course, he’s my friend.” Remus said automatically, too quickly. Lily raised his eyebrows. Remus dumped his head in his hands.

“There’s nothing wrong with it, Lily, I’m in a fight with the best friend I just happen to be in love with, I’m pretty sure there’s a lot wrong with it.”

“So go apologize.”

“I can’t.”

“Why not.”

“Because I just can’t okay? You wouldn’t understand.”

Lily scoffed. “So explain it to me.”

“I—Sirius got in detention on a night we were supposed to—I don’t—I can’t explain it, okay. Please, change the subject.” Lily shrugged.

“All right. What are you doing up so early.”

“I was sending a letter to my parents,” Remus responded, relieved. “I met Professor Lunly on the way there. He keeps trying to convince me he’s here to help me if I ever need  
it.”

“Why would you need his help?”

“Ha, good question. I keep trying to shake him off, and he doesn’t listen. He was walking back to the common room with me, and we ran across a group of Slytherins, death  
eater wannabe’s. Snape was there.” Lily’s hand curled into a fist.

“He was acting weird when he left, sort of distracted, odd. I mean he’s both those things in the first place—,” Lily laughed tightly, “But more so after that. He went to talk to  
Dumbledore. What do you make of that?”

“They’re up to something.”

“I agree, what though?”

“Lily shrugged, “I guess that’s something we can find out.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm updating on time!! Next time I will too. I promise. I'm really excited to keep writing this, and I hope everyone who reads it is excited too.  
> Like, Comment, etc, etc... Much love,  
> -1TruFangirl


	9. An Awkward Affair

The owl delivering the daily prophet to Remus landed in Sirius’ porridge bowl, knocking it over onto his lap. Sirius jumped out of his seat and the bowl clattered to the floor.  
Several people looked up to see what the matter was. Lily giggled, and Remus struggled to subdue his smile, rescuing the owl from Sirius’s murderous glare. He pulled the paper off the owl’s leg, dropped several sickles into the pouch, and the owl flew away. He rested the paper against a jug of milk and began to read, stabbing a sausage from his plate. Lily, glanced over before waving her wand to clean off Sirius’ pants.

Sirius cleared his throat loudly, sitting back heavily in his seat. “I hate it when the owls do that,” he told James, though Remus could feel Sirius’ gaze fixed pointedly on Remus across the table. Remus pretended not to notice.

“The owl can’t exactly help itself…” James said, waving his arms to emphasize his point, and glancing back and forth between Remus and Sirius.

“I don’t know James. I think the owl definitely could have helped himself.” Remus didn’t look up from his paper as he spoke.

“It was—it was just an accident.” James kept bobbing his head as he spoke.

“Yes. And accidents happen. And I would be perfectly willing to forgive the owl for the accident.”

Peter’s eyebrows drew together as he watched the three of them talk.

“Sometimes accidents are easily avoidable,” Remus responded, hardly managing to keep from glaring at Sirius.

“Well—but they happen anyway.”

“Stop flailing your arms around, James.” Remus paused for the first time from his paper to glance up at James and smile faintly at him. 

“I’m not—,” James looked at his hands, then whipped them under the table.

“Maybe it was easily avoidable, but it was still an accident,” Sirius said.

“It didn’t feel like it,” Remus snapped. Remus clutched his fork so hard his hand trembled. He released it, and it clattered onto his plate leaving a silence so thick Remus could feel it pressing against his ears.

James coughed was much too loud to be genuine. “What does the paper say?” he asked.

“Not much, there’s stuff here about—,” he took suddenly, sharp breath in through his teeth.

“What? What’s happened?”

“There’s been another attack. A wizarding family near Lancashire.” Several heads turned their way.

“How many…” Lily asked from beside Remus.

“Three children and their parents.”

“What happened?”

“‘Another wizarding family found dead near Lancashire yesterday evening by ministry officials. The doors were not forced, strongly suggesting magical involvement. One of the dead includes ministry official Marielle Ghislaine who previously worked in the Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes. She and her husband were killed as well as their three youngest children ages ten, seven and three.’” Peter whimpered involuntarily. “‘Their fourth and oldest child, Molly Ghislaine, twelve, currently attends Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The deaths are suspected to be the work of notorious dark wizard He-Who-Must-Not-Be Named and his followers. Several of them, known as deatheaters, where apprehended near the scene of the crime and sent to Azkaban to await trial. The Ministry continues to advise caution when traveling alone, and reminds anyone who witnesses suspicious activity to contact the Department of Magical Law Enforcement as quickly as possible.’ And then it lists information for contacting the ministry.”

“It’s horrible,” Lily murmured. She looked as though she had been sucking on something sour. Those who had listened to Remus read nodded in agreement.

“I wonder who Molly Chislaine is,” said Sirius as though speaking above a whisper was somehow indecent, though his words were mostly drowned out by the chatter of the surrounding students.

“A Ravenclaw second year. I talked to her the other day. She asked me how to get to Professor McGonogall’s office,” Lily told him.

“And people like Snape think it’s okay to associate themselves with this kind of filth,” Sirius spat.

“And he’s not the only one,” James said. “Think about it, some of the people in this room could end up in Azkaban. Snape’s not the only one. What about Rosier? Rowle? Gibbon? All those gits Snape likes to hang around.

“Don’t forget the Carrows,” piped up Peter, with a shudder.

“There’s something off about that fourth year kid, too, Barty Crouch’s son. Did I tell you I saw a group of them hanging around outside of the Room of Requirement the other day?”

“You what?” yelped James

“I was walking around with Lunly—,”

“Why were you with Lunly?” Sirius interrupted.

“I saw the lot of them whispering to each other, they were clearly doing something… off, but I couldn’t tell you what. Lunly afterward, though, he looked… frazzled. Whatever it was, it wasn’t good.”

“Why didn’t you mention this earlier?”

“I… forgot.” In truth, Remus simply hadn’t wanted to reveal the information to Sirius, but it was too late for that now.

“Who else was there?” James pressed him.

“I can’t remember. It was a large group.”

“Damn it, Moony,” said Sirius. The nickname twisted Remus’ heart like a knife. “Imagine if we could catch them at it?”

“Regulus was there,” Remus said suddenly. Sirius snapped his mouth shut.

“What do you mean?”

“Regulus was there too… plotting…” For the first time since they woke up that morning, Remus looked at Sirius, looked him right in the eye. Guilt settled in Remus’ stomach for an instant at the look on Sirius’ face, but Remus dismissed it angrily. He knew Sirius hated most of his family. He knew Sirius hadn’t gotten a long with his brother for several years now, since Regulus came to Hogwarts. But Remus also knew that Sirius had been trying to coax Regulus away from the Slytherins—from the Death Eaters—for a long time, that Sirius, as much as he hated the rest of his family, still loved his little brother. Whatever malice gripped Remus then, he would never be able to say, but he almost couldn’t help it. He flashed Sirius a cruel smile, and the next thing he knew, there was a loud crash, followed by a blinding pain above his right eye as Sirius leapt across the table and socked Remus in the face. Remus toppled backwards off the bench, dragging Sirius and several plates of toast with him onto the floor. Remus grabbed both of Sirius’ arms, trying to keep Sirius from hitting him again, and they rolled around on the stone. 

More crashing followed, but Remus hardly cared. He tried swinging his elbow at Sirius’ face while he held Sirius back, but Sirius’ wrist slipped from his grip as his elbow connected with Sirius’ nose. Something wet fell onto Remus cheek as Sirius drew his arm back to punch Remus again. Remus curled in on himself involuntarily in an attempt to protect himself, but the punch never came. Instead, James heaved Sirius off of Remus, holding Sirius’ arms tightly behind his back and forcing him several paces away. Lily quickly grabbed Remus by the arms and pinned him to the ground.

“Stop it, Remus!” She said, quietly, but none too gently while he struggled. Remus could only imagine James doing the same to Sirius as he stopped fighting, his black hair swinging in front of his face, falling elegant from Sirius’ ponytail. Remus cursed himself as the thought crossed his mind just how good Sirius looked totally disheveled, a little sweaty, his face blotchy and a mix of tears and blood dripping down his chin.

“I’m okay, Lily,” he said softly, sliding out from under her and sitting up, trying to blink away the spots swirling in his vision, not, he realized, from Sirius’ punch, but from hitting his head when he fell back onto the stone floor. Rubbing his head gingerly, he let Lily help him to his feet. The entire hall had stopped to watch the spectacle. Remus looked around sheepishly, then glanced over at Sirius again, who was glaring at him with a new kind of hatred so fierce it made Remus shrink back slightly. The look on his face could not quite be covered by betrayal. what, a minute before had been triumph, was now just a withered lump of guilt in the pit of his stomach that made him feel ill.

Sirius ripped his hands out of James’ grip and marched deliberately down the aisle. For a second, Remus thought Sirius was going to try and hit him again, but instead, Sirius just shouldered past, bumping Remus and throwing him off balance into the table.

Sighing, Remus turned around to watch him go, only to run instead into the burning gaze of Professor McGonagall. Bitter regret burrowed deep into Remus’ chest and took root there.

He and Sirius both received another detention each.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Is it possible for me to write a chapter without Remus and Sirius arguing? No.  
> My goal for the first part of the scene was to make it as awkward as possible.  
> Like, Comment, etc, etc... Much love,  
> -1TruFangirl


	10. Regulus

Everything Sirius knew was toppling down over his head. He’d thought running away from his family would be the end of it. That he’d be able to forget about them and move on when he moved away. That somehow, coming to live with James would erase them, leave them behind. That everything would be different. But everything had just gotten worse.  
The first time Sirius remembered getting in trouble—real, big trouble with his parents—he was six years old. Regulus was five. In the dead of night, Regulus came to Sirius. Around three o’clock in the morning. Amid the periodic boom of thunder and the rain pounding on the windowpane, Regulus’ knock was hardly audible, but Sirius heard it anyway. He sat up in bed, blinking the sleep from his eyes. Lightning flashed in the window and he flinched. It was followed almost immediately by another loud clap of thunder and then a more frantic knocking at his door. Sirius pushed his covers off his legs and went to open the door.

Regulus was standing there, tears streaking his face and a tatty blanket caught in the nook of his elbow.

“Sir’us, I’m scared,” he said, biting his lips and looking down at his feet. Sirius was fond of the older brother role, despite the fact he was only a year older.

“It’s alright, Reg, it’s only thunder,” he replied, brushing Regulus’ hair off his forehead, the way he’d seen his mother do when Regulus was upset, and pulling him into his arms.

“It’s loud.”

“I know, but--,” he paused, glancing at the window. “Come with me, I want to show you something.” Sirius grabbed Regulus by the hand and pulled him out of his bedroom and down the stairs. Regulus stumbled after him, clutching Sirius’ fingers tight enough to hurt. In the stairway, it was nearly impossible to see. The only light came from the top of the stairs, flooding out from Sirius room, the door still ajar. Sirius glanced up at the walls and shuddered, the heads of former house elves cast creepy shadows off the walls, and the light reflected off their glassy eyes. Sirius shuddered and walked faster. Regulus yelped as he slipped down a step.

“Where’re we going, Sir’us?” he asked

“Shh,” said Sirius gently. He peaked around the corner at the bottom of the stairs, listening. From the kitchen came the shuffling of feet, and what was undoubtedly the sound of Kreacher murmuring to himself as he always did. Sirius looked at Regulus, pressing a finger to his lips and creeping out into the corridor. Candles lined the walls, flickering as they burned up into pools of wax. Sirius placed his feet gently on each floorboard, wincing each time one creaked. Sirius led them to the front door. He reached out to the when a voice  
as creaky as the floorboards said, “Can I help masters Sirius and Regulus?”

Sirius froze, then turned slowly on the spot to look at Kreacher standing at the height of Sirius’ hip.

“Don’t tell mum and dad, Kreacher!” Regulus said, looking stricken. “Don’t tell them we’re out of bed.” Kreacher nodded his head politely to Regulus, then turned to walk away,  
Sirius frowned, giving Kreacher a good kick in the leg as he went. Kreature looked back to sneer at Sirius, and slunk away again.

“Don’t do that, Sir’us,” Regulus said, tugging on Sirius’ sleeve.

“He doesn’t like me,” Sirius replied.

“He might like you if you didn’t kick him all the time.” Sirius scowled. The sound of thunder punctured the night again. Regulus pulled on Sirius’ arm. “What were you going to  
show me, Sir’us?”

“Watch this.” The front door was usually kept locked at night, and most of the other times, but Sirius had discovered if he wiggled his fingers in the right way, he could get the lock to click. Whatever spell his parents used to keep the door locked, Sirius had managed to undo it. He did the same now. Regulus looked up at him and grinned, his bottom lip pulled between his teeth, his eyes alight.

“Are you sure Sir’us?” he asked, breathless. Sirius flashed his brother a crooked smile, nodding, and pushed open the door. The sound of the rain was suddenly magnified. Light flooded the hallway from the streetlamp outside. Gently, Sirius pulled Regulus’ blanket from his arms and hung it over the hat stand beside the door.

“We’ll get it when we go back in, okay?”

“Okay.” They stepped outside. Sirius pulled the door closed behind him. They were soaked within seconds. Regulus laughed at the rain, holding out his hands to catch the drops in his palms.

Another fork of lightning sliced open the sky. Regulus gasped, and Sirius wrapped an arm around his shoulders. The thunder that followed was deafening.

“You see, Reg? The thunder can’t hurt you.” Regulus laughed again, and when the thunder came again he didn’t even flinch. The first signs of morning had begun the show through the clouds by the time they went back inside. Sirius coaxed Regulus back to the door, and pulled it open. He stumbled back when he saw who was waiting. Their mother stood tall and dark in the doorway, arms crossed, staring down at them, her forehead creased and her mouth scrunched up like she had just bitten into a lemon.

“Inside, now. She snapped, grabbing Sirius by the shoulder and dragging him inside. “Kreacher told me you were taking Regulus outside, how could you endanger him like that. 

"You are older more responsible, and you should know better."

“It wasn’t his fault, mum, it was the thunder,” Regulus rambled. “I was scared, and I wanted him to help, and so we went outside, and I’m not scared anymore. We—.”

“Regulus, go upstairs to your bedroom, you and I will talk when I’m done with your brother.” Regulus scampered up the stairs, leaving Sirius staring into his mother’s black eyes. She dug her nails into his shoulder and dragged him into the kitchen, scolding him all the way. Sirius was still surprised the first time she hit him. She smacked him right across the jaw, hard enough to send him reeling into the table in the middle of the room. She yelled at him until the sun was well and truly in the sky, and told him to spend the rest of the day in his room. It was also the first time he entertained the idea of running away. It was an impossible dream. Where would he go? How would he even get there? He would have no money, no place to sleep and he would be completely on his own. Besides, when he tried to unlock the door, he discovered he couldn’t. His parents had found a new way to keep him trapped inside.

For a long time, he assumed Regulus received the same punishement. His theory was disproved when he was nine. Sirius sat on his bed, attempting to read a book through slightly blurry vision when Regulus knocked on the door.

“C’min,” muttered Sirius, teeth gritted, expecting his mother. Instead Regulus pushed the door open, his fingers twisting the sleeves of his new sweater, (Sirius wondered briefly where he had gotten it), and grimaced when he say the purple that was already beginning to blossom under Sirius’ eye. There were no marks on Regulus’ face. There never were. Sirius scowled, and turned back to his book.

“I’m sorry, Sirius—.” But Sirius didn’t let Regulus finish.

“Go away, Reg. I’m okay.”

“But—.”

“I said go away.” Regulus paused for a moment in the doorway. His mouth hung open, and his eyebrows crept together, then he said “fine” and was gone. Sirius regretted it as soon as it happened. His eye throbbed.

The arrival of Sirius’ Hogwarts letter was an unexpected relief. Breakfast the morning of Sirius’ eleventh birthday was fraught with the usual tension and discomfort. Mrs. Black continually looked down her nose at Sirius, inspecting him from the end of the table and saying things similar to, “What a disgrace”, “your hair is a mess”, and “why can’t you be more like you’re brother?”

“Why can’t you be more like your brother?” had become one of Mrs. Black’s favorite phrases.

The owl swooped into the room with the letter tied to his leg and Mr. Black reached up to grab it, but the owl evaded his grasp and landed in front of Sirius instead. It hooted once and ruffled its feathers, looking back at Mr. Black contemptuously. He felt like a balloon had expanded in his chest, filled to burst. He glanced once at the Hogwarts seal on the front and ripped the letter open. Mrs. Black looked once at the letter and pursed her lips, glaring at Sirius as though she couldn’t believe the letter was for him. The relief, he supposed, came not from the letter itself, but form the realization that he would not have to spend the next nine months in the company of his mother and father.

When first year was over, Sirius got off the Hogwarts Express with a sharp feeling of dread in his stomach. His mother stood on the platform will her arms crossed and her  
expression stormy. Sirius new why. She had not got a day after the sorting at the beginning of the year before sending a letter expressing her disappointment. Clearly, the displeasure hadn’t dulled. She grabbed him by the elbow and apparated off the corner of the platform where muggle wouldn’t see them. She burst through the front door and flew him onto the carpet at her feet.

“You’re a disgrace to the entire Black family name. A Gryffindor! Of all the things,” she snarled, as if it was something he could have controlled. Mrs. Black kicked him in the back, and then disappeared up the stairs. That wasn’t so bad, that Sirius could handle. But when Regulus appeared in the hallway from a nearby door, he caught sight of Sirius lying on the ground and froze.

“Reg, how was the year without me?” Sirius asked, getting to his feet and going to ruffle up Regulus’ hair. His hand ment empty air. Regulus ducked out of the way, turning to face the wall, and shuffling his feet.

“What’s wrong? Are you mad at me? Did I do something wrong?” Regulus shook his head, bit his lip, and didn’t speak.”

“She put you up to this didn’t she?” Sirius asked, indicating the stair case.

“No, of course not,” said Regulus at last, his voice small.

“Yes she did, don’t lie. What did she say?”

“I’m not supposed to talk to you unless it’s absolutely necessary.”

“She can’t make you do that. You’re allowed to talk to me if you want to.”

“I don’t want to get into trouble,” he murmured.

“Trouble? What’s wrong with a little trouble? We’re in trouble all the time.”

“You’re in trouble all the time.” Regulus corrected him.

“What?”

“I have to go.” And then Regulus slid up the stairs after their mother. Sirius swore under his breath.

It only got worse when Regulus came to Hogwarts too. When Regulus was sorted into Slytherin. Sirius’ mouth dropped open as the word rang in the air, and even after the echo died. Regulus looked over at Sirius once, didn’t smile, didn’t even nod, then looked away and didn’t look back. Sirius cornered him when the feast was over.

“Talk to me, Reg. Slytherin? How can you be in Slytherin?”

“Let go of me, Sirius,” Regulus said.

“No. Slytherin?”

“That’s where the hat put me, okay? I don’t know what’s so wrong with Slytherin.”

“You’ve met our family, right? You know what they’re all like.”

“What are they all like?” asked Regulus, his voice cold. “I want to be in Slytherin. He ripped his arm out of Sirius hand. “I have to go.” Sirius let him.

The slip from the young, innocent litter brother Sirius had known, into the cruel, sharp Slytherin Regulus had turned into was fast and steep.

Sirius had done his best to stop it, confronting Regulus at every opportunity, trying to convince him of the evil he was keeping company. Regulus refused to listen. As much as Sirius hated to admit it, Remus was right. Remus was always right. Regulus, the little boy who was scared of thunder, had joined the death eaters and there was nothing Sirius could do about it now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm going to start updating on Sundays instead of Saturdays, just so I can have entire weekend to write each chapter instead of just the Saturday. (Plus I basically update on Sundays every week already...) I am however, going to try and make sure I don't update at midnight, because that's irritating to everyone. And I keep doing it. Oops.  
> Anyway... Like, Comment, etc, etc... Much love,  
> -1TruFangirl


	11. Teamwork According to Mallory Wright

Something collided with Sirius’ shoulder, and he yelped.

“Padfoot, will you please pay attention. That’s the third time you’ve missed the bludger.”

“What?” Grumbling, James flew over. The wind whipped his robes back, and the flapping sound drowned out his voice.

“That’s the third time in the last ten minutes you’ve missed the bludger, Sirius, and I know you’re better than this.”

“Sorry,” Sirius murmured. He followed James back to the center of the field where he landed on the ground.

“Alright!” James called to the whole team, waving them all over with an arm. “The first match is in a little more than a month. As far as skill level, I think we have all the other teams beat. What we need to work on this year, is teamwork. Dervla, Ben, I trust the two of you have worked out your differences?” Dervla and Ben glanced guiltily at each other. 

“Lack of teamwork is what cost us the cup last year. “

Sirius remembered vividly the last game of the season the year before. James’ first year as Captain of the Gryffindor team had been going spectacularly. Gryffindor was set up to have the best quidditch season of the century until the last game for the cup at the end of the year. Gryffindor needed only to catch the snitch to end the game. No one was sure quite how it had happened, but suddenly Dervla and Ben were in a loud and vicious argument. James went up the separate them, but not before Dervla punched Ben in jaw, and broke both his nose and her hand, and the pair had broken into a fight on their broomsticks. Both went careening sideways into half the other team and they two remaining chasers, as Hufflepuff’s seeker saw her chance and dove for the snitch, beating Gryffindor by a measly ten points and taking the cup away from them. James could be found the next day with his face in his pillow moaning about failure and the end of the world. It had become the sorry task of Sirius to comfort him and coax him back to the world of the living.

“For this first practice, especially with the new additions to the team, I want to focus on drills that will increase team work. For the first drill I want everyone to find a place on the field.”

Sirius kicked off the ground and flew to one end of the field.

“Right!” said James, flying to the hoops on the left side of the field. “None of you are allowed to move. I will throw the quaffle to Sireen, who will throw it to Ben, etcetera. You must get the ball all the way across the field and into the other hoop without moving, and without dropping the ball. Everyone must receive the quaffle, but no one can have it more than once. Go.” He tosses the quaffle at Sireen el-Matin, who was a chaser. She almost dove sideways off her broom to catch it, and came up again, her dark pony-tail mussed and her robes askew. Ben, who was the closest to her was nearly a third of the way across the field. Adjusting her grip on the quaffle Sireen drew back her arm and threw it as hard as she could in his direction. The throw made it to him, though Sirius suspected there was a reason Ben was a beater rather than a chaser. James dove to retrieve the quaffle before it hit the ground.

“Again!” James called as he came back to the end of the field, and tossed the quaffle to Sireen, who tossed it to Ben who promptly dropped it again.

Sirius had never seen James look so close to a teacher as he did in that moment, dropping his head into his hand, and flying back to the center of the field.

“Alright, change of plans, everyone, I want everyone to pick a partner. You will take turns throwing the quaffle back and forth to each other. Each time you successfully catch the quaffle again, fly further apart, until one of you drops it. Ben, you’re with Sireen, Delva, with Spencer, and Sirius, you can go with Mallory since you’re both new to the team.” James summoned two more quaffles from the locker rooms and distributed them among the pairs.

“You’re Sirius Black, then?” Mallory asked brushing short red curls behind her ears.

“Yeah, what about it?”

“It’s just, your entire family’s in Slytherin… and you’re a Gryffindor.”

“I was aware, thanks.”

“Sorry it’s just that, you’re very different from your family, aren’t you?”

“Something like that.”

“What is hard?”

“What, being completely isolated from my family just for being in a different house?” Sirius snapped.

“I’m sorry.” Mallory hefted the quaffle under her arm and drifted back a few feet.

“No, wait, sorry, I just… I already had very different views from my family, so being sorted into Gryffindor was sort of a relief, I guess.

“I’ve always wondered what it would be like to be different from my family. My entire family from my Dad’s side have been Gryffindor.”

“What about you mum?”

“She’s muggle born, but she was Gryffindor too. And all my sisters.”

“How many sisters do you have?”

“Two. They both played quidditch too. They taught me to play and now I’m expected to be another perfect quidditch star and—,” she stopped, blushing. “Sorry.”

“It’s alright. Did the rest of your family play quidditch too?”

“Yeah. My mom and my aunt on my dad’s side. And all their children played too. Dervla over there is my cousin.”

“A lot of pressure I guess, hm?”

“You have no idea.”

“One of the benefits of being the outcast I suppose. You’re a great player you know. And remember, if you really don’t want to play, you don’t have to, your family won’t mind.”

“Yours do.”

“Yeah, but my family sucks.” Mallory laughed.

“Thanks, Sirius.”

“For what?”

“Making me feel better.”

“Black, Wright, quit socializing and get to work!” James called across the field.

“‘Black?” Sirius asked, taken aback. “He’s never called me ‘Black’.”

“I thought the point of the exercise was to build a better team. Come on, ‘Black’ let’s get started.”

Sirius and Mallory, it turned out, made a very good team. They ended up lasting the longest, getting almost half the field-length apart before Sirius dropped the ball to the   
ground.

“Haha! Butterfingers!” Mallory called across the field.

“We’re supposed to be working as a team, not having a contest!”

“That mentality will make you lose every time, Black.”

“It’s… It’s not a contest…” But now James was calling them back over to him, and Mallory had stopped paying attention.

“Alright, we’re going to try the first exercise again. Remember, get the quaffle across the field.”

It took them three tries to get the Quaffle across the field, and Ben only dropped it once. And Sirius actually managed to get the quaffle through the hoop at the end. The sun was beginning to set by the time James ended practice.

“Thanks again, Black,” Mallory said as they parted ways at the locker rooms.

“Sure,” Sirius said as she disappeared down the corridor.

“Make a new friend, Padfoot?” Asked James as he pulled of his robes.

“You know her whole Family has been in Gryffindor?”

“Yeah? So’s mine.”

“Derva’s her cousin. Apparently all the girls in her family play.”

“Impressive. I shows.”

“That’s what I told her.”

“Well just make sure you’re budding romance doesn’t get in the way of the team.”

“Budding—Mate, she’s fourteen. Besides, it don’t… it’s just not like that, alright?”

“Better make sure she knows that. I’ve seen many a young girl fall for the charms of the infamous Sirius Black.”

“You have not.” James’ eyebrows crept up his forehead. “Have you?”

“A few guys too.”

“Okay, now you’re just messing with me.”

“No one’s immune to your strange allure.”

“Remus is.”

“What?”

“I just mean… you know what I mean. He’s… we’re… we’re still fighting.”

“Just go talk to him, mate. He’s your friend. Apologize.”

“He already rejected my apology, remember?”

“Whatever.” They left in silence.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...so... I already failed. I didn't update last week. But this time I actually have a good excuse. Story Time! Half of the files on my computer got deleted, including the entire document containing this fanfiction! So that was fun. This is about the third time this has happened, so I'm employing a new method of storing my documents on my computer. The last time this happened, instead of just rewriting the chapter of the work that got deleted, I just gave up and never continued the story I was working on (it just so happens to be the only other work I have published on this site). This time, I decided I put too much work into this to give up, so I sucked it up, and wrote the chapter again and here it is. My original intentions for this chapter were to not drag up the fight between Remus and Sirius again, but it just flowed so well into the chapter... so I added it. Anyway, here's the chapter that almost wasn't (and not at midnight either, yay!!).  
>  Like, Comment, etc, etc...  
> -1TruFangirl


	12. Interlude

Dumbledore’s office was an organized mess. A whole manner of magical devices littered his desk. Books of various sizes and colors were stacked against the back wall. Doors along the wall were cracked open, and on the edge of his desk was a bowl of candies Lundly didn’t recognize. That was something Professor Lunly liked about it. He felt, in a way that it connected him to the headmaster, as though perhaps Dumbledore had hired him because he reminded the young professor of himself at a younger age. It was mostly fantasy of course. He doubted Professor Dumbledore had really put much though into the hiring of a new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. It had been nearly two decades since the post had been kept by any single person for more than a year. At this point, the headmaster was probably relieved to have any one left willing to take the risk.

But waiting in the headmaster’s office, covered in the paintings of his predecessors and filled to the brim with fascinating, beautiful objects, Lunly couldn’t help but hope maybe there was something Dumbledore had seen in him when he was offered the job. 

The first time Lunly had met Professor Dumbledore had been in this office and it had been no less tidy then. Dumbledore had spoken—simply spoken to him, for five minutes before telling him he got the job.

He glanced around the room again. Light streamed in from the high windows of the office. The sun was setting, and the sky beyond the glass was washed in flames. Lunly checked his watch. It was a minute to six. There were no chairs, except the tall-backed one sitting behind the headmaster’s desk, so he just stood in the center of the room as his watch ticked away the seconds.

The door of the office burst open the moment his watch hit six. Lunly jumped.

“Ah, Michael, you’re here, good,” Dumbledore said, without any impression of being aware of the fright he had caused.

“Yes, sir, I arrived a few minutes early, and let myself in, I hope that’s alright.”

“Perfectly. I’m glad you could meet me tonight, especially on such short notice.”

“It’s no problem, Sir.”

“You should call me Albus, I won’t be offended, I promise.”

“Yes, sir—er—Albus… um…” Dumbledore chuckled softly.

“Pull up a chair, Michael.” He gestured to the wall, where a selection of chairs where lined up, that had definitely not been there before. Lunly chose one and sat down in front   
of Dumbledore’s desk, feeling less like a colleague of the professor, and more light a naughty school boy.

“I trust you have been doing as I asked?”

“Yes.”

“Have you noticed anything suspicious?”

“I… well, no sir, other than the isolation from his friends he seems to be experiencing. In classes he’s a very bright young man.”

“The other professors have agreed with you.”

“I don’t quite understand why you’ve been having me… well keep an eye on him,” Lunly said, taking care to use Dumbledore’s exact words.

“One can never be too careful, Michael. When it comes to the safety of my students I want to take no risks. You understand my concerns I’m sure?”

“I do, of course I do, sir—Albus—but there is nothing about this boy that seems… well untrustworthy or dangerous in any way and as I mentioned before, he’s a very bright man and I—”

“Professor.”

“Yes, sir?”

“I will ask you to continue checking up on him. I trust you can do this for me without revealing to him what you are doing, and without letting your misgivings get in the way of making sure this school is kept safe. I’d expect you of all people to understand this.”

“Yes, of course, I—I’m sorry. It will be no problem.

“Apart from the incident this weekend, do you have anything else to tell me?”

“No, Albus. Nothing.”

“Thank you, Michael.” With a nod, Dumbledore dismissed him. And despite the invitation to call him by his first name, Lunly still felt as though he were a child being reprimanded for his disobedience. Lunly stood up all too quickly, the chair screeching along the floor loud enough to make him wince, but he walked from the office, without looking behind him. As soon as the door closed behind him, goosebumps erupted over his arms. He scurried down the staircase, and flicked his gaze around each corner.

“Are you quite well, Michael?” Asked Professor McGonagall as she turned into the corridor, eyebrows raised. Lunly cleared his throat.

“Ah, yes Minerva, I’m fine. I was just meeting with Prof—er—Albus.”

“So I gathered.” Clearing his throat again, Lunly turned back down the corridor failing to act as though nothing was wrong, painfully aware that Professor McGonagall was   
among some of the teachers who seemed to dislike him despite her assurances that if Dumbledore trusted him, she did as well. They had every right to distrust him, despite the fact Lunly had done his best to try and prove that he was not his sister.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What's this? Another Chapter? On a Monday? I felt guilty for not updating last week... And beside this isn't even a real chapter.  
> I have a confession. I don't really like Dumbledore. I don't dislike him... but he's just not my favorite character. Also, what's up with Lunly, hm?  
> Like, Comment, etc, etc...  
> -1TruFangirl


	13. Detention

It was nearly eight. Remus shuffled down the corridor, dragging out the seconds until he arrived at professor McGonagall’s classroom. If he didn’t pick up the pace he was going to be late for McGonagall’s detention, but to say that the thought of being alone in a room with Sirius was unappealing, would be an understatement. Remus watched his shadow flicker on the walls, cast from the fluttering chandeliers on the ceiling. He checked his watch once; the light flickered on the back of his hands—along the scars in three parallel lines across it. His footsteps echoed in the silence. It was a minute passed eight. The classroom was just at the end of the corridor. He stood at the door, struggling to decide if prolonging the time until his interaction with Sirius was worth McGonagall’s wrath.

Not unexpectedly, McGonagall said, “You’re late, Mr. Lupin,” the minute he entered the classroom. Sirius was already sitting in a desk, head down, and hair falling like a curtain over his eyes. He was wearing his scarlet quidditch robes. Remus recalled vaguely that there had been a quidditch practice for the Gryffindor team earlier that day, but it didn’t seen as important compared to the slightly rumpled image of Sirius Black. Remus averted his gaze, turning instead to face McGonagall.

“Sorry, Professor.” McGonagall did not reply. Instead she set aside her paper and stood from her desk.

“Follow me.” Then she walked out of the classroom. Bewildered, Remus followed slowly. Sirius leapt up from his chair and went after the professor, not looking at Remus as he went by. Remus ran to catch up.  
“I’m disappointed in the pair of you.” Professor McGonagall said briskly. “I’d hardly expect this sort of behavior form either of you, and yet here we are. I should warn you if I catch either one of you fighting a third time this year I will have to take more drastic measures. I thought you two were friends.” Remus didn’t say anything. Nor did Sirius. They marched through the castle back to the Entrance hall. Professor McGonagall’s shoes rang against the floor and Remus dug his finger nails into his palm. He could feel Sirius just a couple feet to his left. Merlin, he could smell him. A delicious mixture of chocolate and fresh grass. Remus cursed himself, then Sirius, then himself again. Professor Sprout was waiting for them. She was short and stout, and dirty as ever, hair flying her patched cap, and her hands sheathed in gardening gloves stiff with dirt.  
“You’ll be coming with me tonight boys. I have a little job for you,” Professor Sprout told them, pulling the gloves tighter on her hands. “Thank you, Minerva, I’ll be taking them from here?” McGonagall nodded curtly, then left.

“Right, you boys will be working for me in the greenhouses.” Professor Sprout opened to door and led them out and down the lawn. It was black except for the spots of light coming from the windows of the castle. “I have several young devil snare plants I will need you to prepare for the first years tomorrow. They have been growing out of control, and they need trimming.” 

In the greenhouses, the light was even worse. Professor Sprout set about lighting candles to illuminate the room. Devil’s Snare plants stood in lined down the tables.  
“Take the shears on the table over there, you’ll need to subdue them and trim them to fit back into their pots. We can’t have these plants attacking any of the first years. Not too much anyway. Get to work, boys. I’ll be back at the end of your detention to take you back up to the castle.” She shuffled away into her office, tying an apron around her bulk as she went.

The two boys stood for a moment, neither looked at the other, preferring instead to study the immensely interest ground beneath their feet. Remus picked up a pair of shears from the table, the scraping sound along the wood was unbearably loud in the silence around them. Remus fought the ever growing urge to glance up at Sirius. He moved around to the other side of the table and began to work. It was not so difficult to trim, once he cast lumos on the plant, it shuddered and fell still, and he was free to hack through the thick vines with the shears.

Several times, Remus caught himself trying to strike up a conversation with Sirius, before remembering that he was supposed to be mad, and stopping himself. Sirius too seemed to be struggling. Every once in a while Sirius would make a kind of strangled choking noise. Remus would look up, and Sirius would be looking at him. He looked away the second their eyes met. The third of fourth time this happened, Sirius swore, then swore again and dropped his shears to the floor with a clattering sound. The third time he swore, Remus looked up again, to see that the devil’s snare plant he was trimming had wrapped itself around his arm. Rather than relaxing has he should have, Sirius struggled with the plant, anger turned to slight panic as he tried to rip his arm from the plant’s unyielding hold.

Remus scrambled around the table, drawing his want out of his pocket and saying, “Lumos.” He thrust the wand tip at the plant and it recoiled, releasing Sirius so that he stumbled back, crashing into the wall, clasping his arm to his chest.

“You’re an idiot,” Remus murmured, the corners of his mouth twisting up in a reluctant smile.

“Thanks, Moony.” Sirius said, leaning on the wall and rubbing the welts on his forearm form the devil’s snare, laughing lightly. There was a moment, when Remus was reminded of their first year, after the first midnight outing they had ever embarked on. The ending had been something similar to this, a fiasco followed by raucous laughter as they scurried back to the common room. The Fat Lady had been particularly irritated by their early morning return. If only they could go back to first year. For a moment, Remus saw the shining gateway leading to their reconciliation. All he had to do was cross the threshold. He could look Sirius in the eye and accept his friendship again. He could let them slip silently back into their former relationship. If only he could bring himself to talk to Sirius. But he could never give Sirius that kind of satisfaction. He clenched his teeth together, eyes snapping back to the ground, and moved back to the plant he was trimming, and checked his watch, though he didn’t really read the numbers. The sound of Sirius sliding down the wall to the ground came from across the table. Remus clipped more vigorously.

What could have been hours later, Sprout came bustling back in through the door, looking somehow dirtier and more disheveled than before, though Remus couldn’t quite figure how that was possible.

“You’re done now, boys, thank you for your help. I’m sure you’ve done an excellent job.” And she led them back up the path and all the way to the Fat Lady. Remus spoke the password quickly and was at the base of the stair before Sirius had even managed to climb through. He rushed up the stairs, and planted himself on his bed.  
“How was detention?” James asked.

“Fine. I’m tired.” He cringed as he drew the curtains around himself. One would thing he might be a better actor, keeping the secret that he did, but then, his friends had found out about it in second year, and really it was no wonder.

Sirius’ footsteps sounded up the stairs shortly afterward.

“How was is, mate?”

“We had to trim the devil’s snare. It wasn’t too hard, but you did have to watch out for them to grab you from behind. The exhaustion in Sirius’ voice was anything but fake.

Remus listened to the sounds of James and Sirius slowly getting ready for bed, the click of a trunk being opened, curtains sliding along their rails, fabric rustling over skin. Only when those sounds faded, replaced only by gentle snoring, did Remus slid of his bed, quietly change into his pajamas and go to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, I'm really bad at this whole "updating regularly" thing, aren't I? It's okay, I've got my excuse prepared! No, really, I've been kind of overwhelmed with all the stuff I have to do. Isn't that always how it is? Everything big and time consuming happens at the same time. Anyway, I'm taking the ACT, I have a gymnastics competition, then I'm in the school play, and then I have another competition, plus all my regular homework to keep up with, so for the next few weeks updates will be spotty (like they aren't already). I'll still try to update as much as I can, though. I will go back to the regular updating schedule (she says as if it actually exists...) once all this crazy shit is over. And I promise to work harder to update on time!!
> 
> Like, Comment, etc, etc...  
> -1TruFangirl


	14. Darkest Hours

“Merlin, I can’t believe how much homework we’ve got this weekend,” Sirius moaned loudly across the table all four of them were sitting at. Bent over a half-finished potions  
essay, Remus rolled his eyes. Much too his irritation, Sirius had been making comments of this sort for the past half our, and Remus was getting sick of it. 

“And this damn potions essay from Slughorn.” Remus pushed his quill too far into the table and the tip snapped off. “We haven’t had a break. At this rate will be—.”

“James have you got a spare quill. I’ve broken mine.” Remus interrupted. James rifled around in his bag.

A hand fell on Remus’ shoulder.

“I hope I’m interrupting something,” Lily said, grinning as she flicked her hair out of her face.

“You are, thank God, I can’t stand other minute of this,” Remus said, rolling his potions essay up and tucking it away in his back.

“Hey, Lily,” James said, fingers finding their usual place in his hair. Remus glanced back at James, eyebrows drawn. Lily’s first name sounded so strange from his mouth.

“Hey, James. Ready Remus?”

“Yeah.”

“Where are you going?” asked Sirius.

“Prefect duties,” Lily replied. She waved quickly and they left, leaving behind the bustle of the common room. The corridors were quiet, and cold, lit sparsely by the chandeliers on the ceiling. Lily set a brisk pace down the corridors, wrapping her robes tighter around her body; Remus scurried after her.

“How have your classes been, Lily? Are you keeping up with the work all right?” Remus asked.

“Ugh, I thought you said you couldn’t stand another minute of homework?”

“Actually I meant Sirius. Although the homework was painful too.” Lily snorted. “Hey, the first Hogsmede weekend is coming up in a few weeks, we should go together, since I  
don’t really want to spend it with you-know-who.”

“I assume you mean Sirius, not the murdering dark sorcerer?”

“Ha, yes, I do.”

“That’s good because I already told Lunly that’s what I was going to do.”

Lily did a double take. “Why did you need to tell Lunly you were going to Hogsmeade with me?”

“He asked if I had plans for the trip and I was afraid if I told him I didn’t have any he would ask to accompany me.”

Lily burst into raucous laughter. “What did he do to give you that impression?”

“Every day after class he holds me back and asks me if I’m okay. It’s rather unnerving if I’m honest and he always gives me house points for stupid things like asking a  
question or turning in my homework. He’s treating me like I’m made of glass.”

“Well, you’re ill so often, and you do look rather sickly if I’m hone—.”

“Oh, shut up.” Remus shoved her as she was reduced back to laughter.

“I hate to break it to you, Remus, but I think Lunly may fancy you.”

“He does not,” Remus laughed, as Lily pushed him back.

“Actually, I did do a little research on Lunly. Did you know he’s got a sister?”

“What about her?”

“She’s a death eater.”

“No way.”

“Yeah, they’re a half-blood family, so she changed her name to Luntz and joined You-Know-Who. I found a record of them both in the library. And she’s been in the paper a  
few times. She’s responsible for a bunch of muggle-born deaths. And you remember that family few weeks ago who were all killed?”

“Yeah…”

“Apparently she was there too.”

“So you think…”

“Lunly could be a death eater too?”

“It’s possible.”

“Then why is he so interested in me? Do you think he’s trying to make me a death eater?” This sent Lily into peals of laughter again.

“No offense, Remus, but you’re just not the death eater type.”

“Ha, thanks.” Remus wasn’t so sure.

“Who’s that?” Lily asked suddenly, pulling her wand out, and lighting it. The light fell on a boy, who froze, looking like a dear in headlights. (Remus had happened to be witness to that on one occasion. He and Sirius had teased James about it for months.)

“Regulus?” Remus asked. Regulus turned slowly, fists clenched, hair mussed and all over his face. He was sporting a nasty black eye and he had blood dripping slowly from his nose. He wiped his face with the back of his hand.

When Remus first met Regulus, he had been a tidier, smaller version of Sirius. Remus even recalled turning to Sirius and murmuring something about how adorable he was, for which Sirius and stomped on his foot. Four years later, adorable was not the word Remus would have used. Regulus was skinnier than Remus had ever seen him. His cheekbones jutted out even more than they usually did. He’d grown taller than Sirius was, his hair now just as ragged and unruly. What distance had failed to show him the last time he’d seen Sirius’ brother, Lily’s wand light now highlighted perfectly. Regulus had circles under his eyes. His robes hung off his body. A kernel of guild took root in Remus’ gut.

“What are you doing here, Black,” Lily asked harshly, brandishing her wand so the light swept up and down his body like she was scanning him. “Do you know who we are?”

“Yeah, my moronic brother’s idiot friends.”

“We’re prefects, so you better get that mouth of yours back to your common room, or I’ll be forced to report to your head of house.”

“Go ahead, Evans, see if I care.” He wiped more blood from his face, sneering.

“Lay off him, Lily, it’s not worth it.”

“If you say so.” Lily stared at Regulus for another second. He opened his mouth like he might say something else, then he turned sharply and marched in the direction of the Slytherin common rooms.

“What do you think he was doing all the way up here? Nox.” Lily’s wand light was extinguished.

“Well, he wasn’t trying to for a heartfelt reunion with his brother, that’s for sure. He was covered in blood.”

“Was he dueling or something? I don’t understand why he can’t keep that in his own common room, he had to drag it all the way up to the seventh floor?”

“Gryffindor’s don’t have a monopoly on the seventh floor, Lily.”

“Still, it’s odd, don’t you think?”

“‘Course I do, what’s any student doing out in the corridors in the middle of the night, all bruised up like that Slytherin or not.”

“Shh, there’s someone else, look.”

Remus did. “Is that Evan Rosier?”

“Damn. Part of me hoped you were just being cruel when you said Regulus was consorting with death eaters.

“Hey, what are you doing in the corridors? You should be back in your common room. Curfew was almost an hour ago.”

“What are you going to do about it, mudblood?” Rosier snarled, lips drawing over his teeth in a sneer. “Gonna give me detention? Take away points?”

“I’ll report you to Slughorn. And I’ll also tell him you’ve been beating up other students.”

“Beating up other students?” Rosier gave a thing laugh. His voice was slippery and cold. “You met Black too then? Just our luck. No, I haven’t been beating anyone up. Black? He did that to himself.”

“What in Merlin’s name were you doing?” Remus asked

“I just told you, I wasn’t doing anything. Really.”

Lily and Remus exchanged glances.

“Aww, the mudblood and the monster. Cute. I think I’ll be going now.” Rosier slipped away into the shadows. Remus stood in the middle of the corridor, frozen; the room spun; his heart pounded in his ears. Somehow, Rosier knew. How did Rosier know? Snape? Dumbledore had made him swear not to tell anybody, but there was no one else who could have told Rosier. How many people new? And how long before the rest of the school new too?

“A monster? You?” Lily scoffed, turning to notice Remus staring at the spot Rosier had disappeared. “Hey, it’s not true, I don’t know what Rosier thinks he’s talking about, but you’re the furthest thing from a monster I’ve ever met.”  
Remus swallow, forcing a smile. “Thanks, Lily.” His heart continued to roar in his head.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> She's back!  
> That "little break" lasted longer that I wanted it too. And there will probably be another one pretty soon as we are fast approaching exam season!! Yaaaay... Again, I want to try updating as much as possible during that time, but you can see how well that worked this time round. Anyway, I feel real bad for going so long without updating, and I hope my meager following hasn't abandoned me.  
> Like, Comment, etc, etc.  
> Much Love,  
> -1TruFangirl


	15. Love's Labours

“All right, everyone,” James shouted, waving his arms for attention. “I’m going to split the team in half. Sireen, Ben, Spencer, you’ll be together. I’ll join Sirius and Mallory. Dervla, you’re going to try to catch the snitch as soon as possible. The points go to the loosing team, so there’s extra pressure to score as many points as you can. The winning side ends practice early. And it looks like it might rain. Good luck, team.” James kicked open the ball crate and released the balls into the air; he grabbed the quaffle and launched off the ground. The team arrayed themselves across the field. James tossed the quaffle into the air. Sirius hefted his bat.

Sireen made it to the quaffle first, darting out to the center of the field at lightning speed, and snatching it away from the other two chasers, zipping through the air to where Mallory played sentry, watching the middle of the field critically. A bludger whizzed through the air past Mallory and she ducked to get out of the way.

“Oi, get moving, Black. You’re not here to have a staring contest with the quaffle!” she shouted.

“Sorry.” Sirius took off after the bludger, hefted his bat, and smacked it as hard as he could into the fray. Sireen careened away from it, dropping the quaffle for James to catch from underneath her. He slipped past Spencer and Sirius raced after him, intercepting a bludger from Ben from a trajectory towards James’ back. He sent it at Spencer instead, who was creeping up on James’ left. It hit Spencer in the shoulder with a load thud, and Spencer spun sideways. Sirius winced.

“Sorry, Spencer!”

“Don’t get distracted, Sirius!” James snipped, voice strained. Sireen squeezed herself beside him, and snatched the quaffle. James swore, turned and gave chase. This time, Sireen successfully dodged Sirius’ bludger. She feigned throwing the bludger left, and then chucked it at the right goal post. The bludger brushed Mallory’s fingers as it sailed by, flying through the hoop. Sireen cheered. Mallory retrieved the quaffle and threw it back to the middle of the field. James took it, swerved away from Spence and sped back across the field, both opposing chasers on his heels. Ben’s bludger missed him by inches and Sirius smacked away. James made it to the end of the field and launched the quaffle through the center hoop.

“Yes!” said Sirius, performing a little victory dance with his bat in the air, and jerking out of the way when Ben cracked a bludger at him in irritation. James dove for the quaffle and threw it back to the field, speeding after it, bent over his broom. Spencer grabbed it first, passing it quickly up to Sireen who was further up the field. Sirius flew parallel to her, waiting for an opportunity that never came. Sireen aimed for the hoops, and threw. Mallory caught the quaffle against her chest with a grunt.

“Nice one, Mal!” Sirius called.

“Call me that again and I’ll shave your head in your sleep, Black.”

“Noted.”

Soon after, James managed to score three consecutive goals, getting past Spencer and Sireen and flipping the quaffle through the hoops before either of them could stop him. Dervla soared above, searching for the snitch.

Sirius hit a bludger at Sireen who was on her way to the goal posts again. Ben intervened, blocking the bludger and sending it careening sideways right at Dervla, who, yelped, and dipped sideways to avoid it, casting her best skull-melting glare in Ben’s direction.

“Oi, I’m on your side you daft maggot! Losing team gets the snitch, remember? That’s you in case you hadn’t noticed.” Dervla yelled across the field

“Ha, barely,” replied Ben.

“You seem to be forgetting, if I catch the snitch, you win.”

“We can win without your help.”

“Not if I don’t let you.”

“If you don’t let us?”

“You need to score nineteen more goals to win. I can catch the snitch before then.”

“Yeah? You’re too over overconfident. That’s why we didn’t win last year.”

“Dervla, Ben, focus!” James called across the field. Neither listened. They slowly drifted towards the ground, shouting at each other.

“Stop that!” James shouted, dropping the quaffle to try and break them up.

“I’m the reason? You’re to one who was too busy goggling at Imogen Wells!” Dervla said, shoving Ben. Ben fell off his broom the remaining few feet to the ground.

“I never ‘goggled’ anyone! You seemed to have forgotten, it takes more than one person to win a quidditch game.”

“Hey, hey, hey!” James yelped. Dervla jumped down to the ground as well, throwing her broom away.

“Maybe if you’d have stayed focused on the game we would have won.”

“You thought you could do it all yourself, you thought—”

“Hey!” James shoved himself between them. Ben scrambled to his feet. The remainder of the team dismounted on the ground. Sirius looked up at the sky, dark and stormy. “Stop it, now. We are supposed to be a team.” Lightning flashed above them, followed by a deafening bang of thunder, punctuating James’ words. A raindrop fell into Sirius’ eye.  
“You’re both the reason we lost last year and this is exactly why. If you two can’t figure out how to work together I’m kicking you both off the team. Permanently.” It began to rain. James sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Practice is over. Go get cleaned up.”

The team swiftly gathered up the balls and headed back to the locker room, tired, wet and defeated. Dervla and Ben had the dignity to look guilty. They were soaking wet by the time they got back to the castle. James wrung his robes out on the floor.

“Rough practice?” asked a voice behind them. Sirius turned. Lily walked towards them, adjusting the strap of her bag on her shoulder, smiling softly.

“That’s an understatement.” James ruffled his hair, shaking out the water, and mussing it up for his audience. Sirius fought an eye-roll.

“What happened?”

“Ben and Dervla.”

“You know, I’ve been wondering when they’re going to work out their differences and just go out with each other.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I thought it was obvious.”

“You’re saying they… what, fancy each other?”

“Of course.”

“But they hate each other.”

“Ha, you’ve met Dervla, right? When she doesn’t like someone she doesn’t talk to them at all.”

“Okay, what about Ben?”

“He’s frustrated. He thinks she hates her.”

“How do you know so much about people?”

“I pay attention, James, something you could probably work on.” For a moment her eyes slipped to Sirius, and his heart slipped into his stomach. What did she know about him? He looked away.

“Well I’ll just tell him she fancies her then, problem solved.”

“You can’t do that, James.”

“Why not?”

“They have to figure it out on their own. You can’t force something like that.”

“What do I do then?”

“I don’t know, James, they’re your team.”

Someone else entered the hall, then did a double take when he say who it was, and turned back around, but not before Sirius saw who it was.

“Regulus!”

Regulus turned, smiling at Sirius without any real feeling.

“What do you want Sirius?”

“You’ve… I’ve… Remus said he saw you with some people…”

“Am I not allowed to talk to people now?”

“No, I mean… they’re people who call themselves death eaters, they want to work with you-know-who. They’re not good people, Reg.”

“Yeah? They’re my friends, Sirius,” Regulus snapped.

“Well, they’re not very good friends,” said Sirius.

“I don’t really care what you think, atually.”

“What I think? What about Mum? They’re dangerous, Reg.”

“I supposed you would know all about what Mum thinks, wouldn’t you?”

“You honestly think she would like you getting yourself into danger?”

“Yes, actually, she wrote me a letter.”

“What?”

“A lot’s happened since you ran away, Sirius,” Regulus snarled. Sirius recoiled. “Mum’s proud that I’m friends with them. She says I’m… I’m on the path to working with… with him.” Regulus’ voice faded away.

“With who?” Sirius asked, eyebrows drawing together. Realization dawned on him. “With You-Know-Who?”

Regulus didn’t look at Sirius, he just stared at the ground, giving a barely perceptible not.

“You’ve got to be joking! Reg, he’s a maniac. He’s a murderer.”

“What if he’s right?”

“Right about what? About muggles? You can’t be serious, Reg.”

“No that’s you, remember?”

Sirius stopped. So did Regulus. It had come out almost like a reflex. Regulus gritted his teeth, clutching the sleeves of his robes tightly. He turned and marched away. He didn’t turn back when Sirius called his name, or called him names. He disappeared around a corner. Sirius didn’t follow. He stood in the middle of the hall, staring at the place where Regulus had gone.

“You coming, Sirius?” James asked. He was halfway up the marble staircase on the opposite side of the hall. Lily walked beside him.

“Yeah, I’m coming.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wait... she's... she's updating on time? And look! It's not even midnight! What is this sorcery!? How has this happened?  
> Yep, I've finally done it. I managed to complete a chapter within my updating schedule. imagine that laughing/crying emoji. That's me.  
> Like, Comment, etc, etc...  
> Much love,  
> -1TruFangirl


	16. The Forbidden Forest

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a weirdly graphic and kind of creepy chapter. It's just kind of bloody and... death-y. Anyway, you have been warned.

Remus woke up in the shrieking shack, shivering on the floor like he always did after transformations. Except for thin shards of moonlight coming in through the boarded windows, the room was dark. There was just enough light to see the outlines of the furniture. The bed, the same as always. Though tonight it looked in worse shape than usual. The sheets had been mauled. Feathers from the flattened mattress floated through the air or lay scattered across the floor. Remus curled his fingers into his palms. In the corner of the room was a chair. It was covered in gouge-marks. One leg was ripped off. The dresser by the bed had been tipped over. The walls were smeared with blood, and muddy handprints. Remus’ mouth tasted like iron. He swallowed; the taste lingered. 

His clothes were ragged and torn, hanging off his shoulders. As he got to his feet, he checked his body for cuts and bruises. There weren’t any. Remus crept through the room and down the stairs; the floorboards creaked ominously. He followed the tunnel from the shrieking shack all the way out to the grounds of Hogwarts. The moon glittered off the lake in the distance, a crescent, like a claw hanging from the sky, casting eerie light across the grounds. Remus jumped when an owl hooted in the distance. It was answered by another, and then a third. The hairs on Remus’ arms prickled. The wind whipped past, playing with Remus’ hair and tugging on his clothes.

Around him pinpricks of light like stars littered the earth. Looking closer, Remus saw glinting in the grass was a trail of blood and clumps of dirt pulled up from the ground. Horror clawed its way up Remus’ throat. He shoved it down, forcing himself to follow the trail. Now that he had spotted it, it seemed impossible that he had not seen it before. Every step, his eyes locked on the spray of blood. It pooled in some places, where the ground was matted and flat. The trail led him to the forbidden forest. The light was dimmer, the quiet infinitely spookier. Every sound echoed and sent a shiver down Remus’ spine. Each time he snapped a twig under his feet he paused, looking around to see if he had disturbed any creature lurking in the shadows. He pulled his wand out of his pocket.

“Lumos,” he murmured. The light fell across the forest floor. Remus stumbled back when he saw what the light illuminated. Lily lay slumped against a nearby tree, ominously still. Blood trickled from her mouth, her clothes were stained red and her face smeared with dirt. Her head slumped against her chest. Remus knelt beside her, to check for a pulse, to be sure. She was dead. He stood up too quickly, scrambling backwards and falling over a dead branch. He quickly recovered and ran. He didn’t know where he was going, but it didn’t matter, as long as he could get away from her body. It was beginning to become increasingly clear what had happened.

Remus literally tripped over the next body. His wand flew several feet from his hand as he caught himself with his hands, jarring his wrists, smashing his face into the ground. His nose filled with the scent of decaying earth and wet dirt. He grabbed his wand, turning around to see it staring glassy-eyed at him. James, neck snapped, eyes boring into nothing, empty and cold. His body was sprawled across the dirt. This time he didn’t check to see if by some miracle James was still alive. He didn’t need to. Remus couldn’t breathe. His hands trembled. Every part of his body screamed at him to escape, to get out of the forest, somehow. But he was hopelessly lost. The path was nothing but a distant memory.  
When he came across the third body, his heart stopped. Sirius was tucked in between two large roots. His body looked broken, like he had been thrown against the ground or a tree trunk. There was blood everywhere, so much blood. Remus nearly choked on the smell.

“Remus…” Sirius rasped. Merlin, he was still alive. Remus’ knees gave out underneath him. He pressed a hand to his lips. His eyes stung.

“Sirius?” he croaked. Sirius smiled.

“It is you…” Each word sounded strangled and cut off by shallow breaths. Remus crawled closer.

“Yeah, Sirius, I’m here.”

“’m sorry, about…” he coughed violently. “About…”

“Shhh, I know you are. I know.”

“Good, I can’t leave, without—,”

“No, you’re not leaving. You’re not leaving me, not yet. No. No, no, no, no, Sirius.” But the last breath had already left his lips. It misted in the light of Remus’ wand. Sirius’ head fell against his shoulder. The tears fell down Remus’ cheeks, unrestrained, dampening his collar, falling on Sirius’ shirt.  
“Well, well, well, what do we have here? The little werewolf has lost his friends.” Remus’ eyes snapped up. Standing together was a group of several death eaters. Snape, with a snide look on his face, was the one who had spoken. Rosier stood at his shoulder, twirling his wand between his fingers. Regulus was on his other side. A faceless woman stood nearby. Around him, people he knew littered the forest, murmuring at him.

“You’re a monster.”

“Little werewolf, killed his friends.”

“Poor thing, he’s all alone.”

And laughter. One by one, each death eater broke into hysteric laughter, until it filled his ears, his chest, and his entire body until he thought he might explode. He was all alone.  
He killed them. He was a monster.

Remus jerked awake gasping, and shaky. His classmates starred at him.

Professor Lunly paused from his lecture, something about Grindelwald’s rise to power. “Mr. Lupin, are you quite alright?”

“Um, no sir, I don’t feel very well, may I please go see Madam Pomfrey?” For once, Remus was banking on Lunly’s strange fascination for him, hoping he would be free to go if Lunly though he was too fragile to be in class right before the full moon.

“By all means Mr. Lupin,” Lunly said. Remus almost sighed out loud, standing to leave. Sirius stood up to.

“I should go with him.”

“No you shouldn’t,” Remus hissed, gripping the desk, afraid he might fall over.

“Yes, certainly, Black, go with him.” Lunly said. Remus cursed under his breath, pushed off his desk and made his way to the door, stumbling over someone’s bag, disappearing out the door. Halfway down the corridor, Sirius’ footsteps joined his.

“Remus, are you alright?”

“I’m fine.” Remus marched through the corridors to the staircases, pointedly ignoring Sirius until he grabbed Remus by the arm.

“What were you dreaming about?”

“Who said I was dreaming about anything?”

“You kept mumbling words, sometimes it was “monster” sometimes I couldn’t understand it. Sometimes… sometimes it was my name.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I just wanted to make sure you were okay.” Then Sirius produced those damn puppy-dog eyes. Not the ones that he used when he wanted something from James, or when he was trying to get Lily to check his potions homework, the ones he made when he was really upset. The ones that make Remus melt into his shoes, that made him want to do anything to fix it. And that made everything even worse, because no way was he giving into those eyes.

“Stop it, Sirius.” Remus shook his arm out of Sirius’ grasp and left him at the bottom of the stairs, gaping like a fish. Remus walked all the way to the boys’ dormitory and fell against his mattress with the curtains drawn, trying to do anything but fall asleep again. He didn’t leave until the rest of the school was a dinner, when it was time for him to go to the hospital wing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was really hoping to be able to update this on time, but, you know, exams. And I had a really crappy weekend. But It's here now, so, better late that never, I always say.  
> At any rate, this is a really special chapter, because it officially makes this the longest work I have ever written, and the first one I've really stayed committed to!  
> Like, Comment, etc, etc...  
> Much Love,  
> -1TruFangirl


	17. A Delegation of Fools

Sirius stood by the window, staring at the sunset on the lake. Remus was probably sitting in the Shrieking Shack by now. It would be cold. A fresh blanket of snow had settled over the grounds overnight. 

James sat on the bed closest to Sirius, reading a History of Magic textbook with his eyes closed. Sirius nudged him with his elbow, and he snapped awake, knocking his book onto the floor. Peter lay across the carpet at the foot of James’ bed where he was struggling through an essay and nibbling on a chocolate bar. Sirius kicked him gently. 

“C’mon, Pete. You have the cloak, Prongs?” James reached under his bed and held it up his invisibility cloak for proof.  
Gryffindor Tower was still too crowded for them to sneak away quietly. It was after dinner and the cold had drawn everyone into their common rooms. Through the din and chaos, their passage went unnoticed by all but Lily Evans.

“James? Where are you three going?” she asked.

“That’s none of your concern, is it?” Sirius barked. James kicked him.

“Remus is ill again. We were going to go visit him in the Hospital Wing.”

“That didn’t go well last time he was ill, did it?” Lily asked, eyeing Sirius. Sirius growled. James grabbed him by the arm, glaring and digging his fingers into Sirius’ arm. “Is it alright if I come with you? Remus was supposed to have Prefect duties with me tonight. I want to make sure he’s okay.”

“Um, actually, Lily…we wanted… you sh— I, um, I don’t think it’s, uh…” James stuttered. Sirius rolled his eyes.

“Sorry, Lily, you can’t.”

“What? Why not?”

“He’s our friend, so we’re going to go visit him.”

“I think at the moment, Black, he’s more my friend than he is yours.”

“Sirius!” James snapped, shaking Sirius’ arm. Sirius unclenched his fist, releasing his wand clutched tight in his fist. It fell back into his pocket.

“I’m sure he’d love to see you, but we’d rather go visit him on our own first. I’m sorry Lily.” James said, shrugging and shuffling closer to the portrait hole. They slipped out the portrait hole, Lily watching, eyebrows drawn and arms crossed.

“Nice going Prongs, that couldn’t have been more awkward,” Sirius snarled.

“Oh, and you were making it better by snapping at her, were you?” James replied as they walked, pulling the invisibility cloak out from under his shirt and letting it unfold to the ground. He flung it over all three of them and they crept forward, peaking around every corner and pausing to listen every few paces for the footsteps of teachers or the occasional passing ghost.

A crashing sound split the silence. Sirius jumped, rounding on Peter, who cringed with the noise, the helmet of the suit of armor he knocked over rolled down the corridor and fell down the stairs. With each crash Peter cringed, pulling tighter into himself. The noise stopped when the helmet hit the bottom of the staircase. Peter peaked up through his hair at Sirius.

“Oh, well done Pete, you’ve only gone and attracted the attention of the entire school.”

“Sorry, Padfoot, it was an accident—,”

“Now we’ll be lucky if we get through the castle without running into trouble--,”

“Oh, lay off, Sirius. Can’t you give it a rest for one damn second?” James said sharply, rounding on Sirius. “I get it, you’re frustrated, but stop taking it out on your friends, okay?”

“I’m not—,”

“Yeah? First Lily, then me, and now Peter. Just calm down, okay.”

“Sorry, James. Sorry, Pete.”

“It’s alright.” Peter said. The invisibility cloak had fallen off their heads. James pulled it back up.

“Let’s go,” he said.

They met only two ghosts and a trio of gossiping teachers for whom they had to squeeze against the wall to avoid being bumped. The door to the castle was still unlocked. Sirius pushed it and it swung silently open. Cold air swirled through the cloak; wind blew snow onto their feet.

“We should have brought warmer clothes,” James whispered, leading them out the door. “Or at least boots.” They sank up to their ankles in the snow. 

“We should hurry,” Sirius said, more to himself than anyone else. The other two didn’t say a word, but all three quickened their pace in the rapidly advancing darkness. The shadow of the Womping Willow approached as they went, branches swaying languidly, backlit by the moon darting between the grey clouds streaking the horizon. Automatically as they approached, Peter transformed, shrinking away underneath the cloak, dropping the excess over James’ and Sirius’ backs and darting between them to the trunk of the tree, pressing a knot near the base, freezing the tree. Peter slid down the tunnel in the trunk, vanishing from sight. James whipped off the invisibility cloak and jumped through the tunnel after him and Sirius followed closely behind.

Peter waited in the tunnel, still small and furry. Sirius followed his example, stretching out his neck, willing himself to transform too. It was like being turned to putty and molded into a new shape. There was a strange feeling of weightlessness, and being compressed into a ball, and then sprouting new limbs all over again. A gentle burn traveled through his bones as they morphed. His skin prickled and fur grew thickly over his body. It was a feeling he was still trying to get used to. Sirius yipped his discomfort at James, whose animagus was too big to transform inside the little tunnel. It smelled of wet dirt and mildew. As they travelled down the tunnel, the scent shifted. It was more like rotting wood and animal fur, and the faint tang of blood. Sirius whined in the back of his throat, bounding ahead of Peter.

He popped his head out of the tunnel, crawling into the foyer of the Shrieking Shack. Peter came out first, then James, hands covered in dirt, jeans filthy. He ran his fingers through Sirius’ fur and Sirius recoiled, shaking out the grime and growling playfully at James, who held his hands up in surrender. Sirius pawed at James’ feet, cocking his head to the staircase. In seconds, standing in James’ place was a majestic stag. From the room upstairs came howl that chilled Sirius’ blood. He ignored the sudden appearance of a large deer and darted up the stairs.

Remus sat in a corner, snarling and clawing at the floor. He snarled when Sirius game in, jumping to his feet an taking up a defensive pose, only to release a strained whimper as his leg collapsed underneath him. Sirius sprung forward and pushed his side against Remus’ to keep him steady. Remus’ blood leaked through Sirius’ fur. Remus shook him off, pushing by James’ legs and going down the stairs. James huffed his irritation. He had to come all the way into the room to turn around, and it took several precarious seconds for him to get back down the stairs. Remus had already slipped back into the tunnel by the time James reached the bottom step. Peter followed him, while Sirius made sure James didn’t kill himself on the staircase. As soon as the danger passed, Sirius launched himself back down the tunnel.

Remus paced back and forth around the trunk of the Womping Willow, waiting. The moment James came out of the tunnel, he took off again, following the path through the school grounds. Remus led them all the way to Hogsmeade.

By the time they got there, the moon was well and truly in the sky, shining fat and full, illuminating their way. Once he barked a short question, but Remus ignored him, slipping past an alleyway on silent paws, muffled by the snow, and peaking around the corner of the nearest shop. With a low growl he backed away, looking back, eyes flashing silver, catching Sirius’ for the first time all night. Sirius’ hackles rose. He approached cautiously, peaking around the wall.

Four figures slinked down the pathway, robes drawn over their heads, wands out. Their conversation was hushed and fast, just barely too quiet for Sirius to hear. Remus had his ears pricked. Peter slid by both of them, scampering down the road to follow the little group, confining himself to the shadows.

The figures stopped; one looked around, checking to see if anyone was watching. His face was too far in his hood for Sirius to make out who it was. Another pulled something out of his robes. The other figures surrounded him, blocking the object from sight. They approached the closest building, crowding close, each taking turns to glance around suspiciously. The door swung open with an audible creak. The figures shuffled inside quickly, shutting the door quickly, but not before Peter slipped in between their legs. He was visible only by the flick of his tail before he vanished from view. Sirius moved into the road. The shop the people had entered was Honeydukes.

It was a few moments before Peter came back, scrabbling at the door. Sirius glance at the other two uneasily. He jumped at the door handle, and it swung open. Peter squeaked excitedly, and turned back to the interior of the shop.

Honeydukes was eerie in the dark, like all normally populated places when empty. Peter led them past the counter to the back of the shop. The figures were nowhere to be seen. In their wake was left several overturned boxes. Sweets littered the floor. A crate of something that wiggled lay tipped onto the ground. Sirius sniffed them tentatively. He licked one up off the floor. James huffed at him in disgust.

Amid the noise, Peter squeaked again. The sound was barely loud enough to grab Sirius’ attention. Peter was standing on a lopsided floor tile, flicking his tail back and forth. Sirius nudged the tile with his nose and it scraped across the floor, revealing a hole with a steep staircase leading down into darkness. Sirius stood at the edge of the passage. It smelled musty and old. How long had it been down here? Remus pushed past him, leaping down the stairs. Sirius released a bark of alarm, and darted down the stairs after him. Both James and Peter waited indignantly at the top for the pair to return. James couldn’t fit down the tunnel, and Peter was too small to use the stairs.

Sirius began to suspect where the tunnel might be taking them by the time they got to the second staircase. It had been nearly an hour, and this passage mimicked the twists and turns of another passage leading to Hogsmeade. At this rate, by the time they got back to Peter and James it was going to be sunrise. Sirius gave a gentle bark when Remus put his foot on the first stair. Remus looked back, contempt evident even in his wolf eyes. Sirius retreated several steps, beginning to turn around. Remus stood his ground, so Sirius barked again. For several tense seconds, Remus did nothing but watch Sirius. Then, he turned away and followed Sirius down the tunnel again. Sirius didn’t stop for breath, setting a brisk pace back to their friends waiting in Honeydukes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a longer chapter. It took longer than I wanted it to, to finish. But I got there in the end. On the bright side, all my exams are done now, so I should be returning to the "regular" updating schedule. Also, It will be summer soon, which will help. I'm going to do my best to update again this Sunday as well.  
> Like, comment... etc, etc. Much Love,  
> -1TruFangirl


	18. The Auspicious Mind of Lily Evans

“Did you see who it was under the hoods, Pete?” Sirius asked eagerly as they emerged from the Whomping Willow, human again. The sun was just beginning to sneak over the horizon. They had left Remus, still in wolf form back in the Shrieking Shack almost an hour ago, aware that if they didn’t hurry back they might run into Madam Pomfrey on her way to retrieve him. James opened the invisibility cloak and threw it around the three of them.

“Sirius, wipe our footprints behind us,” he said.

“It was Snivellus.”

“It was who?” Sirius stopped, a look of glee on his face.

“Snivellus. He was with the others. Rosier and them.” James tugged on the cloak, trying to pull Sirius along.

“I wonder what they were doing in Hogsmeade in the middle of the night. And when they went into Honeydukes, they just disappeared down that tunnel?”

“You two were gone for ages. Where did it lead?” asked James.

“Back to Hogwarts I think.”

“You think? You mean you didn’t get to the end.”

“We almost did, but I… I didn’t want to let Moony into the castle in case I was right.” In the short silence, it dawned on Sirius, the consequences of their actions if Remus had gotten out of that passage. He felt a guilty twist in his stomach. He ignored it. They were helping Remus this way. Besides, it was fun. “What were the Death Eaters talking about?”

“It was hard to hear, but they kept repeating something about a way in.”

“Do you think they were talking about the tunnel?”

“No, it was something they hadn’t found yet. Snape kept saying, ‘If we can’t find it soon’ something-or-other about You-Know-Who.”

“Do you think You-Know-Who’s put them up to something then?”

“Shhh.” The front door of the castle creaked open. Yellow light spilled over the snow. “You’ve been clearing out footprints, right, Padfoot?” James whispered.

“Of course I have, I’m not stupid!” he replied.

“Shhh!” Sirius scowled. But then Madam Pomfrey emerged from the door and he was silenced. James adjusted the cloak around them, making sure their feet were covered. Madam Pomfrey trudged past, pulling her cloak tighter around herself in the wind. Her boots crunched through the snow. Her pace felt agonizingly slow against the sun climbing the mountain tops in the east. They watched the Whomping Willow freeze when she raised her wand at it.

They dared to move again once she disappeared into the tunnel. They hurried through the door closing it softly behind them. They crept down the corridor and up the stairs in silence, until they reach the portrait hole. James removed the cloak.

“Billiwig.” James said to the Fat Lady, who was still snoring in her frame. James cleared his throat loudly. The Fat Lady’s snoring got louder. James tried again. When she still did not wake up, James pulled out his wand and jabbed her painting sharply. The Fat Lady feigned waking dramatically, spluttering and looking around for something, before spotting the three of them standing there, and scoffing, rolling her eyes with such fervor, they disappeared in the back of her head.

“Billiwig,” James said again. Her portrait clicked and swung up. Sirius, James and Peter crawled through.

“So, what do you think Snivellus was doing in Hogsmeade?” Sirius asked.

“Do can’t really think they’re working directly with You-Know-Who, do you?” Peter asked timidly.

“Can’t imagine they can be really. I mean Snivellus is evil and all that, but You-Know-Who?” James said.

“I wouldn’t put it past him,” Sirius snarled, grinning. “We could get him in so much trouble if we told Dumbledore he was in Hogsmeade in the middle of the night. Who else was there, Pete?”

“Well, there was that creepy Crouch kid, and, um—,”

“You’re forgetting we’d have to tell Dumbledore we were there too. How else would we know he was there?” James interrupted.

“What were you doing in Hogsmeade? I though you said you were going to visit Remus?” Lily stood form on of the arm chairs by the fire, pulling her blanket around her shoulders. A book fell of her lap onto the floor.

“How long have you been sitting here?” Sirius asked in alarm.

“Since you left. I thought when you came back I could go see him myself.” Then you didn’t come back. I kept waiting. For hours and hours.” She inched forward slowly, like a lion preparing to pounce. Sirius took a reflexive step backward. “Now, I couldn’t think why it would take you so long to visit your friend down the hospital wing. Madam Pomfrey certainly wouldn’t allow it.” Her eyebrows furrowed in fake confusion. “Then it dawned on me. The only thing you could possibly be doing would be getting into trouble like you always do. And now I hear you’ve been running around Hogsmeade, chasing after Se—after Death Eaters.”

“What are you going to do, Evans, report us to McGonagall?”

“Actually, I wanted to help you.”

Sirius was taken aback. “You what?”

“I want to help you figure out what the Death Eaters are doing. Remus and I saw Regulus—” Sirius stiffened—“and Rosier running around the corridors the other day. They wouldn’t tell us what they were doing.”

“So they are plotting something!” James said triumphantly. Peter whimpered.

“We don’t know that, but they’re definitely doing things they’re not supposed to. If we can get proof that they’re doing it, we can get them in trouble: loose point for Slytherin, or even get some of them expelled.”

“I take back everything I ever said about you, Evans,” Sirius said, grinning. “You’re pretty cool after all.”

“Thank you, Black, but I think if we’re going to be working together, you should call me by my first name.”

“Deal.”

“Alright, now what were the three of you doing in Hogsmeade? Were you following them or…” Lily yawned.

“We should go to bed,” James said gently.

“You don’t get to tell me what to do,” Lily said, pointing a threating finger at James. Then she yawned again, swaying a little on her feet. James jumped forward, putting his hands on her shoulders to keep her steady.

“I don’t need your help.” Lily swatted half-heartedly at his hands.

“Yeah, right.” He adjusted the blanket around her, and pulled her along to the girl’s staircase. Peter moved to follow, but Sirius grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and pulled him back, leading him towards the boys’ staircase. 

“You know you can’t come up the girls’ staircase, right, James?”

“I do now.” James pushed her up the first steps. “Go to bed, Lily.”

“Goodnight, James.”

“Wait! You forgot your book.” James was visible for a moment as he jogged by to grab Lily’s book.

“Thanks.” Lily whispered.

“Go to sleep.”

Sirius heard no more of the conversation, halfway up the other staircase behind Peter. They let themselves into the dormitory to wait for James to come up with them.

“Good job, James, you actually managed to have a coherent conversation with her,” Sirius teased.

“Yeah.” James didn’t seem to have recognized the jibe. He had a strange grin on his face.

“Hey!” Sirius snapped his fingers. “Lover-boy, we’ve got stuff to talk about.”

“Right, sorry.” James’ face turned scarlet.

“I was thinking,” Sirius paused for effect. “We probably know the castle better than anyone, right?”

“Yeah…” said James hesitantly.

“And it’s always such a nuisance to try to figure out if people are in the corridors.”

“Okay, where are you going with this?”

“We could make a map of Hogwarts.”

“How does that help us?”

“We could make it track the location of all the people in Hogwarts.”

“How would we manage that?”

“I don’t know, I’m sure R—I don’t know, but I was thinking about it, because of that tunnel in Honeydukes. We know a lot about the castle, but there’s still so much we don’t know. And once we figure out how to make it work, we could track the Death Eaters without even having to leave the common room. Tell me I’m a genius.”

James squinted out the window at the rising sun. “Well, you’re not a genius, but you might be on to something.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's still Sunday, so technically, goal achieved. Yay!  
> Like, Comment, etc, etc... Much Love,  
> -1TruFangirl


	19. Hogsmeade

The weather was determined to be grim and cold. It had hardly stopped snowing the past two weeks. Remus and Lily walked together, heads bent against the storm. The wind was too loud to talk over, but they made the trek to Hogsmeade in comfortable silence, following behind a large group of excited third year Ravenclaws.

They hunkered down in the Three Broomsticks for some Butterbeer. The place was crowded, full of everyone else trying to get out of the snow.

“I’ll go get us some drinks, shall I?” Remus said.

“What was that? I couldn’t hear you.”

“I’ll go get drinks,” Remus said again, miming drinking from a cup. Lily nodded, sliding some coins across the table for him. Remus took them, making his way through the students around him, gently pushing his way to the counter.

“Thanks,” he told the bartender when she handed over his drinks. When he returned to the table, he was met with the unpleasant sight to Severus Snape looming across the table, talking to Lily. His greasy hair swung into his eyes like curtains. Remus couldn’t hear what he was saying, but Lily clearly didn’t want to hear it. Her eyebrows were drawn so far up her head, Remus thought they were going to vanish into her hairline. Her lip curled in disgust. Remus set her drink down on the table sliding it across to her.

“I told you, Severus, I don’t want to speak to you, and I would really appreciate it if you would leave me alone.” Her voice shook.

“I just thought you might have forgiven me by now.”

“Forgive you? Ha! I might of done, if that were the first time it happened, but you run around with your stupid friends, bullying students, using that word—,”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it.”

“Oh, you didn’t mean it. Well I supposed that just makes everything better, doesn’t it. It’s alright to call every other muggle born a mudblood, but when it’s me it’s suddenly wrong. What makes me so special, Sev? You don’t mean it when you say it to me, but what about every other muggle born student? Let’s go, Remus.” Lily stood, shouldering past Severus, pushing by several other patrons; she was swallowed up by the crowd. Remus snatched her Butterbeer off the table, catching up to her at the door.

“Here.” He handed her the drink. “Are you alright?”

“Yes. Yes, I am, thank you.” She took the drink and started down the path. The wind had died just enough that they could hold a conversation.

“You said you wanted a new quill, didn’t you?”

“Yes.” Remus took a swig of his drink; warmth spread form his core through his body.

“C’mon, it’s this way.”

Scrivenshaft’s Quill Shop was decidedly less crowded. The room was dark. Dust hung in the air the way it only did when in a place that was full of time. It was old and unattractive from the outside, and the inside was even worse. Floorboards creaked. Every shelf was crooked. Remus plucked a quill off the nearest display, twirling it in his fingers, stoking the feathering, jabbing the tip at the pad of his finger. Down the line, the quills got more and more extravagant. Some were long enough to pool on their shelves. One near the back was so long it brushed the floor. Remus grabbed this one off the shelf, testing in his hands, twirling it around like a ribbon.

“I pay for that just to see you use it during exams,” said Lily poking him as she walked by. “What about this one?” She pulled a quill down that was thicker than it was long, and a violent shade of pink. “It’s definitely your style.”

Remus rolled his eyes, returning his quill to its stand. “You should get that for James. He’d love it.”

“I’m sure.”

“I think frankly he’d just be thrilled he got something from you in the first place.”  
Lily laughed. “Reason number three-hundred-ninety-four I will not be getting James this quill. “Actually, James hasn’t been so bad this year. At least he doesn’t shout at me across the table anymore. I was starting to wonder what happened. He got ill or something. Maybe he found another girl…” She trailed off, drawing absentminded patterns in the dust on the shelf in front of her.

“Lily?”

“What? Sorry, did you say something?”

“No, you just sort of stopped…”

“Sorry. Your quill. Did you find anything you like?”

“Yeah, actually.” He grabbed a nice eagle feather quill off the shelf. “I’ve been looking for a good one of these for a while. I broke my last one. They’re usually quite sturdy, but…” he coughed, and pulled the quill off the shelf, bringing it to the counter. The young witch standing there rang up the purchase.

“That will be twelve sickles and four nuts,” she droned. Remus fished around in his purse for the coins, passing them over. The witch handed him the quill and retreated back into the back of the shop. Remus stowed the quill.

“Let’s go.”

As they were walking out the door, Remus ran headlong into Professor Lunly. Lunly backed up.

“My apologies, Mr. Lupin. How are you? Are you well?”

“I’m fine.” He was perfectly between transformations; it was one of the few times he actually felt healthy.

“Ah, Miss Evans, you are here. Good, good.” Lunly smiled down at her patting her on the shoulder. Remus saw Lily tense slightly, but Lunly didn’t seem to pick up in it. “It’s good to see you here with someone like Lily, she’s a good student.”

“All due respect, sir, but I’m aware. She never lets me forget.”

Lunly chuckled. “Good, good. What have you been doing? I noticed to talking to Mr. Snape earlier. Is he also a friend of yours?”

“No. No he most certainly is not. I—we—no, we’ve never really gotten along.”

“Ah, I see.”

“How about your schoolwork. Are you keeping up?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Good, well if you every need anything, you know where I am.”

“Thank you sir, but I think I’ll manage.”

“Come on, Remus we should go before it’s too late. I want to get there on time.”

“Yes, you’re right Lily. We should go. Good bye, Professor Lunly.”

“Have a good day, young man.”

When the door closed behind them, Lily burst into laughter. “He definitely fancies you.”

“Has he been following me around?” Remus asked, looked back incredulously at the door, unnerved. “It wasn’t exactly empty in that pub.”

“You’ll just have to let him know you’re not interested. Don’t want to give Sirius the wrong idea—,”

“What’s happening up there?” Remus interrupted, pointing ahead at a group of people crowding around something at the top of the road. People were shouting. Light flashed from the middle of the circle. Most of the crowd were students.

Lily sighed. “We should go check it out.”

“Do we have to?” asked Remus. “Could we just ignore it and let the teachers handle it?”

“We’re prefects.”

“Is that a no?” Lily didn’t speak. They stood outside Scrivenshaft’s a minute longer while Remus resigned himself to the task ahead. “Alright,” he said at last. “Let’s go.

“S’cuse me,” said Lily, leading the way through the crowd, which had gotten bigger even as they approached. “Excuse me, I’m a prefect.”

The crowd opened up to James, Sirius and Peter faced with a group of Slytherins. At the head of the group was Snape, bruised, and bleeding from the nose. Behind him were two younger Slytherins, nursing injuries. One seemed to be unconscious on the ground. There was even a first year being propped up by an older student.

James and Sirius had their fair share of injuries too. Sirius clutched his arm against his chest. He had a large cut trailing down his cheek and he pant leg was ripped open, his leg bleeding on the dirt. James’ hair was blown across his head, so that for once in Remus’ memory, it looked flat. A lump was forming above his eye. His front was covered in mud.

“Why am I not surprised?” Remus asked. James fired another curse at Snape, which hit him in the jaw, sending him flying back into the students behind him. He scrambled quickly to his feet.

“Protego!” James shouted. The curse deflected off his shield charm, and several of Snape’s posse ducked out of the way. The rest of them backed slowly away, leaving Snape to fend for himself, though he didn’t seem to notice.

“James Potter!” Lily shouted, bumping Remus’ shoulder as she stormed past and putting herself between them as Snape raised his want again, breathing hard. “Make another move and I will hex you into oblivion!”

“Lily!” James hastily brushed himself off rumpling up his hair. Lily rolled her eyes. James dropped his arm.

“It’s not what it looks like. Snivell—er, Snape was bullying a first year. We had to step in and help. They were—,”

“Oh, yes, and after you finished ‘helping?’ This doesn’t look like bullying first years, James, this looks like having a duel because you can. I don’t care what he’s doing, this has gone far past defense or retaliation.”

“I don’t—,”

“Oh zip it. And you,” she rounded on Snape.

“Thank you, Lily,” he murmured softly. He looked slightly fearful, like he was trying to deflect the anger boiling in her eyes.

“Get up. I didn’t do this for you. Don’t pretend you’re blameless.” Snape glanced behind that his friends sneering at him,

“Who said I wanted your help. I had it handled.”

“Right, that’s why you were on the ground, covered in blood.”

“Fine. I don’t know why I keep trying. Mudbloods like you don’t deserved to be at Hogwarts anyway.”

“Really?” Behind her, James made a motion as though he was going to attack Snape, but Lily beat him to it, slamming her fist into Snape's jaw so hard he staggered backwards, falling into the snow at his friends’ feet. Lily shook out her hand, and stomped away. Remus smiled sympathetically at James as he followed her on her way back to the castle. He glanced once at Sirius, who dropped his gaze immediately. Remus decided he wasn't worth the words.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm a failure. I had a busy weekend, so I was like,"it's okay if I don't finish today, I'll just post it on Monday." And then I didn't finish it on Monday either. So I was like, "Okay, Tuesday." And clearly that didn't happen. So I was like, "Wednesday for sure." And that didn't happen either. So finally, I was like, "Thursday, I got this." I wrote most of it during class, and was so prepared to finish it last night, and I didn't. So I finished it as soon as I woke up this morning.  
> Anyway, I'm really disappointed in myself. But, hey, I did say at the beginning of this adventure that I was horrible at updating consistently.  
> The point is, I haven't died, so here you go.  
> Like, Comment, etc, etc. Much Love,  
> -1TruFangirl


	20. Halloween

Sirius was starving. The Great Hall was filled with chatter and the smell of warm food. The usual Halloween decorations filled the hall, Jack-o-lanterns large enough to hold people were floating in the air in place of the usual candles that lit the room. Orange and black streamers were strung from wall to wall. Bats flew across the starry sky. In the corner of the enchanted ceiling sat the tiny crescent of the moon.

Sirius tipped several helpings of stew into a bowl and was about to inhale it, when Frank Longbottom sat down across from them, flushed, eyes wide.

“Have you heard about it?”

“Heard about what?”

Somehow, Frank’s eyes went wider. “It’s all over the school.”

“What is?”

“The break in!”

“Slow down Frank. What on earth are you talking about?” said Remus, holding his hands up.

“At Hogsmeade, a group of You-Know-Who’s followers broke in to several of the shops. They kidnapped some of the shop owners and trashed the village.”

“No way,” said James.

“Yeah. It was shortly after we all go back.”

“Lucky for us then,” Sirius said.

“I’m not so sure,” Remus murmured.

“What are you talking about Rem?” asked James.

“Well, either we got lucky, or they planned specifically for it to happen after all the students had left.”

“Where’s Snape?” Sirius asked suddenly. “What if that’s what they were doing in Hogsmeade! Maybe they were helping the Death Eaters sneak in?”

“I highly doubt that,” Remus scoffed.

Sirius ignored him. “Frank, what shops did they break into?”

“Um, the Three Broomsticks for sure, that stupid tea shop at the end of the road, Puddifoots? And Honeydukes, I th—,”

“Ha!” Sirius’s shout caused Frank to jump so violently, he fell backwards off the bench. Sirius lowered his voice. “I bet they were trying to get into Hogwarts.”

“Through that passage in the cellar?” James quirked his head.

“Exactly. We have to figure out where it leads.”

“What, tonight?”

“You have the cloak.”

“You don’t actually think we could stop a bunch of Death Eaters getting into Hogwarts?” Remus asked, incredulous.

“Why not.” Sirius shrugged. Remus rolled his eyes. “Come on.” Sirius began down the hall. Peter snagged an armload of food as they left.

“Where are we even supposed to start looking?” Remus asked in the common room as James jumped up the stairs to retrieve the invisibility cloak, “just in case.”

Sirius glanced sideways at Remus, struggling to formulate a snappy retort. Remus wouldn’t look at him, but held his shoulders in a crooked, bored manner, his lips pursing in his irritation. Sirius wiped his hands on his pants and let Remus’ question hang in the air.

James launched himself back down the stairs, clutching the silvery cloak under one arm.

“Careful,” Remus said as James careened into him. “You’re going to put one of us in the hospital wing.

“Sorry, Moony,” James patted his shoulder good-naturedly. “It’s just, when was the last time we did this? Snuck out in the night to make trouble? Except for full moons, I mean.”

“Before exams last year when we put Ignis Powder under all the tables at breakfast.”

“Ha! I remember that! Maria Carpenter yelled at us for a full half hour because we interrupted her studying for N.E.W.T.s.”

“We melted her notes...”

“I’m sure you’d be happy if someone interrupted your studying next year, right before the biggest exams of your school careers.” Remus pointed out.

“Aw, come on, Moony, you were in on it too.” Remus smiled in spite of himself, with a brief glance at his feet. A twinge of jealousy squirmed its way into Sirius’ stomach. Once upon a time, he could make Remus laugh too, now Remus could hardly look at him.

“We should get going,” he said, a little too loudly.

“Yeah, alright,” James said. “Where to first?”

“Well, the passage is not likely to be on a top floor, especially if it’s underground, so I suggest we start by poking around the lower floors,” Remus suggested, pushing his sleeves up his arms. Sirius looked away sharply when Remus turned in his direction.

“What if we get caught?” asked Peter. “Don’t we usually have a plan for this kind of thing?”

“We’re not going to get caught, Pete,” James reassured him. “Besides, it’s not like we’re doing anything wrong. No one said we were forbidden form walking around the castle after dinner.”

“What about after curfew? I assume that’s the reason you brought the cloak?” Remus said.

“Yes, we need a meeting place, somewhere we can get to easily, but that’s still inconspicuous.”

“The weird broom closet on the seventh floor?”

“Too far away.”

“What about that empty classroom in the Transfiguration hall?”

“A teacher could walk in, don’t you think?”

“The statue,” said Remus, “on the third floor, of that old hump-backed witch with one eye. It’s a clear enough landmark, it’s right in the middle of the castle, but few students go there unless they need something, and it’s after dinner, so no one should.”

“Sounds good.” James smiled, stuffing the invisibility cloak up his shirt with fervor and leading them out the portrait hole.

Lily met them at the door.

“Where are the four of you headed?” she asked, eyebrows furrowed. Remus rubbed the back of his neck, glancing around at the people coming quickly down the corridor. Peter weaved his fingers together, behaving the way he always did when fumbling for a lie. But James perked up.

“Lily! Perfect, you can help us.” Lily’s eyes narrowed.

“If this involves Snape, or getting someone in trouble, you can count me out.”

“What? Oh, no. We’re looking for a secret passage.”

Lily’s concern only seemed to grow. “Where?”

“We don’t know.” 

“Okay, why?”

As James filled her in, her face got progressively more scrunched, until Sirius finally said, “Are you coming or not, Evans, we’ve got to go soon, if we’re going to actually get anything done.”

“Sure, I’ll come.”

“Alright.” James turned in a slow circle, like he was surveying the landscape. “Lily, you come with me and Sirius. Remus, you and Pete can go together too.” Remus nodded; Peter scooted subconsciously closer to Remus. He reminded Sirius of a small child, going to pull on his parent’s coat for attention. “Be back at the One-Eyed Witch statue before curfew.”

They split away.

James, Sirius and Lily spent the first forty minutes combing the ground floor, looking in classrooms, and behind tapestries. Lily berated Sirius for another five minutes when he nearly dragged a tapestry off the wall.

Her voice attracted the attention of Peeves, who came floating swiftly down the corridor, giggling and spinning something above his head which looked fairly heavy and rather sharp.

“O-ho!” he cackled. “Potter and Evans sitting in a tree—,”

“Clear out of here, Peeves,” Lily snapped.

“Ooh, this ones got a mouth on her, better watch out, Potty!”

“I might actually hex you for that one, Peeves, we’re busy.”

“Too busy for your old pal? Peevsie’s lonely you see.” He put on an exaggerated frown. He tossed his object haphazardly into the air, and departed with a whoosh, a gust of air followed, ruffling their hair.

“Don’t tell me you’re actually friends with him?” Lily asked, disgusted.

“He’s handy if you need a distraction.” Lily rolled her eyes. “Would you expect anything less of me, Lils?”

“Unfortunately, I’d managed to coerce myself into expecting more.” She stalked back down the corridor to the staircase.

“Did I screw that one up?” James asked, turning to Sirius.

“You might have done, mate.” Sirius followed Lily to the stairs.

When quarter to ten yielded no results, except a forgotten store room on the first floor, and a strange nook in the dungeons that contained nothing but a pile of yellowing parchment and a large spider that caused Sirius to give a loud and rather feminine scream, they made their way back up to the statue of the witch. Remus and Peter were nowhere to be found.

“They were completely alone in the corridor until a voice said, “Sirius? Are you following me? I thought I told you to leave me alone.”

Sirius whipped around. Regulus was standing in the corridor. He hand several suspicious objects in his arms, which he quickly tried to hid in his sleeves, with little success.

“What are those?” Sirius asked, pointing.

“They’re nothing. That’s none of your business.

“I’ll make it my business.”

“Merlin what part of ‘leave me alone’ do you not understand?”

“You may not have noticed, but I was here first.”

“Rem! Pete!” said James loudly. “Did you find anything?”

Regulus and Sirius froze. Sirius turned around again. Peter and Remus hurried down the hall. The latter was sporting a ghastly cut on his hairline.

“Did you find anything? And what the hell did you do to yourself, Moony?”

“He tripped,” Peter supplied when Remus just scowled.

“Not more of you,” Regulus scowled.

“Fine, Reg, we’re leaving.” Sirius grabbed James and Remus by the shoulders, pushing them down the corridor and around a corner. Peter and Lily followed.

“Get the cloak,” Sirius whispered. James pulled it out and handed it to him. Sirius unfolded it, and threw it over all five of them. The cloak didn’t even cover their knees. Sirius found himself uncomfortably squished up against Remus’ chest. He pulled it off again.

“What are you doing?” James asked.

“I’m going to see what he’s up to.” Collectively, and to Sirius’ surprise, the other four sighed. “Fine. Sirius wrapped himself in the cloak and crept back around the corner. Several other Death Eaters had joined Regulus by now.

“You’ve got them?” One whispered.

“Yeah, said Regulus. “We should hurry though, my brother was lurking around here.” He said “brother” with a vicious snarl. Sirius almost dropped the cloak to the floor.

The death eater who had spoken pulled out his wand. Tapping it on the witch statue, he said, “Dissendium.” The hump of the witch slid open. One by one, each student squeezed through the gap until only Regulus was left. He glanced up and down the corridor, and disappeared too. The statue closed with a soft shink. Sirius ducked back around the corner.

“Well?” James demanded, when Sirius handed back the cloak. “What were they up to?”

“I don’t know," said Sirius, "But I've found the passage.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay. I actually have a legitimate and very frustrating excuse this time. Expletive warning, I broke my fucking computer. It's a great story, I should tell it some time. I had to piece together this chapter from a school computer over multiple days. For that reason, until further notice, I will be on breif hiatus, yelling at things until I can either get my computer fixed, or get a new computer. With luck, it won't be too long, but for now, here we are.  
> Like, Comment, etc, etc... Much Love  
> -1Trufangirl
> 
> Edit: just realized I forgot to add in the prank they pulled. Oops, it just says (insert, etc...) ha. Fixing that now...


	21. Gryffindor vs. Slytherin

It was far too early in the morning when James marched Sirius and the rest of the Gryffindor Quidditch team down to the Great Hall that morning. He’d thrown open the dormitory window to fervid protest and allowing chilly wind to rip through the room. The sound of rain had woken the other two, who had fallen promptly back asleep.

Now, the team of seven marched resolutely through the corridors, James at it’s head. He was the only one who seemed to be awake, or particularly ready.

The Great Hall was almost completely empty when they arrived. Two Slytherin students sat at their table, talking animatedly as they ate their breakfast, and a Ravenclaw sat alone at her table, reading a book propped up on a glass of orange juice. James sat the team down in the middle of the Gryffindor table. 

“What’s that muggle saying, Sirius? Early bird has worms, or whatever?” he asked

“Early bird gets the worm,” Sirius corrected.

“Right, that. Early bird gets the worm. The only way to win the Quidditch cup is to train harder and be more prepared than the other teams. We’ll have a good breakfast, then we’ll head to the locker rooms to get ready.” James punctuated his speech by hauling a plateful of toast in front of him and buttering it enthusiastically. Sireen was the only one who followed his example, spooning porridge with a confidence Sirius was sure he couldn’t muster. Dervla moodily speared some sausages on a fork, putting them into her mouth with decidedly less enthusiasm. Mallory seemed to have fallen back asleep, her hand pulling her cheek up, until her hand slipped, and she woke with a start. Ben only played with his food. James swatted at him like an annoyed parent. Spencer looked like he was trying to swallow the snitch.

Every once in a while, James spewed encouragements such as, “We’re the best team at Hogwarts, those stuck up purebloods have no chance!” or “We’re going to clobber the Slytherins or die in process!” Some were more helpful than others. By the time Remus and Peter arrived, Sirius’ heart was doing a damned fine impression of a drum set. He was used to being on their side of James’ horrifying and sometimes eccentric pre-match routines. He had hitherto failed to appreciate the stress that accompanied such actions.  
Remus sat down across form Sirius rather stiffly. His hair was mussed almost as much as James’; Sirius stopped himself from reaching across the table to comb it flat with his fingers.

“How are you feeling?” Remus’ words were as stiff as the rest of him.

“I’m fine.” Sirius lied. Remus puffed out a breath, dragging his fingers through his hair. Again, Sirius was reminded of James, who copied the movement as Lily appeared, letting her friends go and plopping down beside Remus. Sirius liked it better when Remus did it, like he didn’t even realize he was doing it.

“You four have some explaining to do,” she said, pointing a finger at all of them in turn.

“What do you want to know, Lils?” asked James.

“How long have you had that cloak?”

“It was my dad’s. He gave it to me first year.”

“So, the four of you have been wandering around the school at night for, what, five years?”

“Yeah.”

“Under the noses of all the teachers?”

“Yeah.”

“And you never got caught?”

“Sure, we did, loads of times. You don’t think all the other stuff is what got us the record for most detentions by a group of students in Hogwarts history? Eat something, Sirius.”

“You do not hold that record.”

“We do. I’m serious, Pads, eat something or you’re regret it come game time.”

Reluctantly, Sirius pushed a sausage around on his plate, then stabbed it viciously before finally taking a bite.

“Good man,” said James, patting Sirius on the shoulder. Out of the corner of his eye, Sirius could see Remus staring at him, playing absently with a lock of his hair. As if his stomach wasn’t roiling enough already.

“What are you planning?” Lily asked, lowering her voice.

“Conversation for another time, Lils. It’s time to go.” James stood and gathered the team. Remus stood too as if he meant to follow. Sirius half expected Remus to give him a hug, wish him luck on his first game, like everything was okay. The words seemed to hover on his lips. Then he sat back down, looking resolutely at his breakfast.

“Padfoot,” said James. Sirius turned and took the lead out the Great Hall.

The sound of the rain was even louder from the locker rooms. The steady sound drowned out James’ voice, but that didn’t stop him from delivering his speech at full volume for the team. Sirius only caught snatches of it: something about slaughter and the eventual down fall of Slytherin’s house.

“We’re fighting against the weather here, so this will take some skill. Skill I’m confident the Slytherin team doesn’t have.” 

“Do we have it?” Dervla muttered skeptically under her breath, glancing at Ben menacingly. James pretended not to notice. Ben scowled.

“All right, team. We’ve been preparing for this all year. Let’s go out there and win!” James finished. 

“Oi, mate?” Sirius swallowed. “Don’t become a motivational speaker.” 

“What? Why not?” 

“You’re not helping.”

“Let’s go.” The Gryffindor team marched onto the field. James shook hands with Slytherin’s Quidditch captain, Murry Roberts. She was small and lithe, but Sirius knew she’d been seeker on the Slytherin team for four years, and for good reason. Madam Hooch blew her whistle releasing the balls into the air. Sirius shoved down a surge of apprehension and kicked off the ground. From the air the rain seemed to come down like hail. They were soaked in minutes.

In the downpour, Sirius could barely see. All around him, the other players were nothing but smudges of color against a grey background. Someone was calling the match, but he could barely hear over the sound of the storm. Streaks of green followed a matching red blur up the pitch.

“Potter scores!” The crowd cheered. Sirius joined them, diving into the fray. It was nearly impossible to tell what was bludger and what was person. Several times, Sirius nearly smacked into someone, and once, one of the opposing beaters rammed into his shoulder. Intent was debatable, but Madam Hooch failed to notice one way or the other. Fuming, Sirius smacked a bludger as hard as he could at the Slytherins’ nearest chaser, who dove to avoid it, dropping the Quaffle in the process. Another Slytherin chaser scooped it up and made a valiant attempt to put the Quaffle through the middle hoop, but Mallory blocked it, bouncing it off her shoulder and tossing it back into the middle of the court.  
Sireen grabbed it; she and James weaved back and forth down the pitch, tossing it between them. The Quaffle slipped between the Slytherin Keeper’s fingers. The next instant one of the opposing chasers rammed head-long into Sireen’s side. The pair spiraled into the nearest goal post and this time, Madam Hooch blasted her whistle, bringing play to a halt.

“Penalty to Gryffindor!” she called. Sirius glanced across the pitch. Sireen leaned against the goal post, clutching her broom in one hand, her head in the other. James called time, flying down the her, dismounting before he even got to the ground, resting a hand on her shoulder. Slowly, Sireen got back on her broom, and she and James rose back to playing height. Sireen took her penalty, throwing the Quaffle cleanly through the left-hand hoop.

“Thirty- zero, Gryffindor.” The Slytherin keeper chucked the Quaffle back to one of her teammates, eyes narrow, her other hand balled in a fist. The chaser weaved through the scarlet robes, leaning over his broomstick and speeding down the pitch. As he reached the end, nearing the scoring area, the Slytherin beater smacked the nearest bludger at Mallory. She didn’t see it, reaching out her arm to block the Quaffle. Sirius knew it was going to happen before it did. The bludger connected with her elbow, and Mallory rolled over her broom handle with a cry. The Quaffle flew past her, straight through the nearest goal.

Again, James called for time, and Madam Hooch blew her whistle. Mallory leaned over her broom, sinking slowly to the ground. James made his way toward her, catching her and pulling her onto his broom. He lowered her gently to the grass, waving his arms to gather the team. Sirius dismounted first, kneeling in the grass with James. Mallory groaned softly, digging her finders into her forearm. Her elbow was crooked, already swelling. James’ face flushed, nostrils flaring.

“I will not have Slytherin bloodying up my team,” he said, teeth clenched, when the rest of them had gathered around Mallory. “If they want to play dirty, we’ll play dirty too.” 

“I’m fine, James, I can keep playing,” Mallory said sharply, but her voice was strained, each breath labored and short.

James’ voice became instantly softer. “You are not staying in this game. You are going to the hospital wing, immediately.”

“Shoo! Out of my way.” Madam Pomfrey came shuffling through the Gryffindor team, nudging them aside to get to Mallory; Madam Hooch following behind her. Madam Pomfrey knelt, pulling Mallory’s arm toward her. Mallory winced, breathing in sharply.

Madam Pomfrey murmured to herself as she looked over Mallory’s arm. Sirius missed most of it beyond the words "stupid", “ridiculous” and “dangerous”. 

“That’s definitely a broken arm,” she said, her tone displeased. “Come along, dear.” Madam Pomfrey helped Mallory to her feet and guided her off the field. 

“Are we ready, Mr. Potter?” Madam Hooch asked. 

“Yes, Ma’am.” Madam Hooch blew her whistle again.

The difference in Gryffindor play was obvious immediately when Dervla passed the Slytherin chaser, Eckersley with enough speed she nearly knocked him off his broom, kicking her leg out so fast as she went by that Madam Hooch didn’t notice. She passed her odd swerve off as a sudden dive for the snitch, feigning searching around as though it had disappeared. Sireen snatched the Quaffle as it fell. Eckersley chased after her ramming her in the stomach with his elbow as he made his bid to steal it back. Quaffle under his arm, Eckersley darted down the field. Unhindered by a Keeper, he made the goal easily. Sirius booed with the crowd.

With Mallory gone, Slytherin managed to score three more goals in a manner of minutes. In the process James had been jabbed in the eye with Murry Roberts’ fingers, the Slytherin beaters had crashed into each other (Dervla’s work), several more players from both sides had been elbowed or kicked in various sensitive regions and Slytherin’s keeper had collided with the goalpost, halting gameplay for several minutes until her mouth stopped bleeding. Penalties had been awarded on both sides and the score quickly became Fifty-Seventy with Slytherin in the lead. 

Sirius cursed under his breath as Eckersley swerved around his bludger and scored another goal. James grabbed the Quaffle out of the air, diving out of the way of Rebecca Green and speeding past the middle of the field. Eckersley tried to black his way. Sirius found the nearest bludger and hit his bat at it. The Slytherin beater rose up in the gap between them, deflecting the bludger back to Sirius before he realized what had happened. The bludger slammed into his chest with a crunching sound that rang in his ears. For a disorienting moment he thought he was floating. His broom seemed to have disappeared. Then he was falling. Or at least, the ground was rapidly approaching, but Sirius couldn’t seem to feel anything beyond blinding pain. His head felt sort of fuzzy, like it was stuffed with tissues. Merlin, the ground was getting awfully close, but couldn’t think what to do to stop it coming. He wanted to sleep. It had been a long day. The impact was softer then he thought it was going to be. The ground seemed to fold in around him, he curled up in the grass. Sirius lost consciousness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm updating on the wrong end of Sunday. Isn't that weird.  
> Look who got a new computer!! Man, this thing is amazing. I digress. School is over, which means I have no excuse for not updating, unless I'm on vacation (it happens) or I get distracted by Tumblr (1TruFangirl, just like on here, if you want to follow me, *wink wink*. It's mostly just gay shit. Like, 90% gay shit.) The point is, I have a computer and I have time, so I just have to be committed to making my chapters more consistent. Thank you to the people who have stuck to this between my weird schedule and strange updating habits. Stick around because this is going to last a long time.  
> Like, Comment, etc, ect.... Much love,  
> -1TruFangirl


	22. The Hospital Wing

The bludger smashed into Sirius’ chest and the crowd gasped. Sirius tumbled off his broom. Remus launched himself out of his seat, shoving past Peter, down the stairs, his breath caught in his lungs. His pulse thudded against his throat; he could feel it, too fast in the tips of his fingers. Around them other students stood, trying to get a better look. Remus pushed them aside too.

“Remus, wait—,” said Peter, running behind, struggling to keep up. Remus didn’t listen. In the middle of the field, Sirius was sprawled on his back, unmoving. His broom bobbed absently by the ground near the goalposts. The sound of Madam Hooch’s whistle barely registered over the ringing in Remus’ ears.

At the bottom of the stairs he leaped over the barrier to the field. He got halfway across before Madam Hooch intervened, grabbing him by the shoulder. Remus tried to rip himself away, but her grip was too strong. He struggled, spikes of pain ribboning down his arm where her fingers dug into his flesh.

“Please be calm, Mr. Lupin. Ah, Mr. Pettigrew, will you hold him please?” Peter looked alarmed. Remus may have been skinny, but he was still taller than Peter by nearly a head. Peter grabbed Remus by the elbow tentatively. Remus didn’t fight him but kept clenching his hands into fists over and over. Madame Hooch pushed up the sleeves of her robes, moving her goggles off her forehead. They left perfect red circles around her eyes. Madam Pomfrey scurried past them too. Remus felt his eyes sting, anger welling up in his chest. McGonagall followed close behind her, robes billowing in the wind.

James dismounted his broom nearby, only to be shoved back as well. James retreated to where Remus and Peter stood. His hand had settled in his hair, his other hand gripping his broom so tightly his knuckles were white. Peter’s hold on Remus’ arm tightened.

With a flick of her wand, Madam Pomfrey conjured a stretcher. She and Professor McGonagall lifted Sirius onto it, and the matron guided it off the field, McGonagall following behind her. Remus made to follow, but Madam Hooch stood in the way.

“Pettigrew, Lupin, I suggest the pair of you make your way back to your seats. Mr. Potter, are you ready to resume?”

“Yes, Ma’am,” James said.

“What about—,” Remus began.

“Mr. Black is in perfectly capable hands Mr. Lupin. I’ll remind you mister Potter that if play does not resume soon, Gryffindor will be forced to forfeit the game to Slytherin.”

“We’re ready,” James said. Madam Hooch blew her whistle. Remus felt as if he’d suddenly been dumped in a tub of hot water. He couldn’t figure out how to breathe. He couldn’t hear what Madam Hooch said. His head spun and his fingers tingled. James kicked off the ground.

Remus yanked his arm out of Peter’s hand, dodged Madam Hooch and ran after McGonagall and Madam Hooch.

The door to the Hospital Wing was closed. Remus pulled on the handle, but it was locked. He knocked desperately at the door. Almost a minute later, Madam Pomfrey came to the door.

“Mr. Lupin—,”

“Can I see him, please.”

“Mr. Lupin, I can’t let you in now. Mr. Black needs medical attention and rest, an I can’t give him that with you hanging over my shoulder.”

“But—,”

“I’m sorry Mr. Lupin. Feel free to wait out here. I will inform you when you’re allowed to come in.” She shut the door sharply. Remus dug his fingers into his palms, teeth clenched. He backed away from the door slowly, slumping back against the wall and sliding to the floor, letting his head hit the wall behind him. But a minute later he was on his feet again, unable to stay still; he paced back and forth in front of the Hospital Wing doors.

The commentary of the game was not audible from the corridor, but every once in a while, Remus heard the collective cheering or booing from the audience. Every time it happened he shoved his fingers through his hair, until it managed to stick up of its own volition.

It wasn’t long before the game was over. Students flooded past, chattering about the match, though Remus couldn’t make out any of the details. Peter and James and the rest of the Gryffindor team were of the last to arrive. Even Mallory was there. She was the only one no longer in her Quidditch robes. All of them were soaked, dripping onto the stone floor. Dervla had mud streaked down her front. Remus opened his mouth to ask, but James just shook his head.

“Sirius?”

“Madam Pomfrey won’t let me in.” Remus fiddled with his sleeve. His feet itched to resume pacing.

Remus looked past James. Laughter flittered up the corridor, quickly followed by the Slytherin team. They were equally wet but looked significantly happier.

“How’d you like that, Potter?” Murry Roberts called. “Gryffindor will never win the cup if it’s team can’t even stay in their brooms. She stuck her tongue between her teeth, sneering.

“Shut it, Roberts. At least the Gryffindor team doesn’t have to resort to cheating to win games.”

“Tell that to squirrel-face over there.” Murry indicated Dervla, who growled. She looked like she was about to pounce. “That’s the sad thing, isn’t it, Potter? You cheated and still didn’t win.” She shrugged and led the rest of her team down the corridor, except one. Regulus stopped, looking down at his feet. He glanced up once, making eye contact with Remus and opening his mouth like he was going to something. Then he changed his mind and vanished with the rest of his team.

The door clicked open. Remus and James whipped around.

“You can come in now,” Madam Pomfrey said. “But if you’re rowdy, I will send you out. Mr. Black needs rest.” Madam Pomfrey stepped back into the room, and the team followed. Remus stopped at the door; his stomach did a strange little flip. Scarlet robes crowded around Sirius’ bed, all speaking at once until Sirius shushed them, pushing himself up on his elbows.

Remus took a few tentative steps forward.

“What happened?” Sirius asked. “Did we win?”

James scoffed. “By the end of the game we were missing a beater, our keeper and our seeker. We lost ninety to two-hundred and forty.”

“Our seeker?”

James glanced at Dervla. “She got pulled out of the game after she jumped on Zebrowski’s broom and tried to shove him off.”

Dervla huffed. “He deserved it.”

“Well maybe. It was all I could do to keep her from being permanently kicked off team. And good thing too seeing as there’s no better seeker in the school.” Dervla looked like she didn’t know if she should be pleased or insulted.

“What about Mallory?”

She emerged from her teammates. “Madam Pomfrey fixed me up in heartbeat and tried to send me back to the common room.” She showed off her mended arm. There was no sign that it had been broken a little over an hour before. I saw the end of the game. After Dervla bounced Zebrowski.” Dervla threw her hands up in the air, exasperated.

Sirius laughed looking up; he caught Remus’ eye and his smile faded. Remus looked at the ground. James coughed awkwardly.

“Why don’t the rest of you get cleaned up and changed?” James suggested. It was followed by an awkward pause. Remus’ cheeks burned. Dervla grabbed Mallory and Ben and dragged them away with her. The rest of the team followed their lead. Remus swallowed. The Hospital Wing door swung closed with a bang.

“How are you feeling?” Remus asked

“All right. I—er—Madam Pomfrey gave me a few potions. They tasted awful.” His laughter was short

“Remus was in a right state when you fell.” James said helpfully. “Hopped the wall and everything. Madam Hooch had to hold him back.” Remus was tempted to kick him. Now Sirius was blushing too, his body rigid. Remus took a breath, fighting the fear coiling in his chest.

“I w- I want…” Remus paused, biting his lip. “I’m sorry, Sirius.”

“What?”

“I overreacted, after… I’m sorry.”

“It’s… fine." Sirius smoothed out the blankets covering his legs. "I’m tired. Madam Pomfrey said I needed rest. I should probably get some sleep.”

“Yeah. Right.” Remus wiped his hands on his trousers, nodding, and led the other two out of the Hospital Wing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My catchphrase should be "better late than never."  
> For some reason I had a really hard time writing this chapter. I rewrote it like three times, so I hope the wait was worth it.  
> Like, Comment, etc, etc...  
> Better Late Than Never!  
> Much love,  
> -1TruFangirl


	23. Dedicated Denial

Remus sat across the common room at a table loaded with books and parchment. His hand shuffled along his latest essay. He rubbed a finger across his brow, pushing his hair out of his eyes. Remus ran the quill over his bottom lip, deep in thought. Sirius watched him, pulling a strand of hair through his fingers.

“It’s rude to stare, you know.” Lily plopped herself down in the chair across from Sirius. Sirius snapped his gaze away. 

“What are you on about?” He said. Lily tossed her hair over her shoulder, crossing her arms.

“You can’t tell me you think you’re being subtle?”

“I’m not staring at Remus.”

“Ah, now you’ve just gone and admitted it.”

“What? No, I haven’t. I mean—,”

“I never said anything about Remus.”

“So, what? How does that have anything to do with it?”

Lily rolled her eyes. “You look like James when he’s staring at me.”

“I do not.” Sirius gave her a smile his hoped looked cocky and self-assured, instead of one inch from throwing up. Something about the look in Lily’s eyes told him he hadn’t succeeded. He looked down at the desk.

“You know, it’s all right to admit you have a crush.”

“You think I have a crush? On Remus? Best friend since our first year?” Lily shrugged, the corners of her mouth turning up. “Mhmm, alright, you’re mad.”

“You’re in denial.”

“I don’t have a crush on Lupin. I’ll prove it.”

“Oh?”

Sirius quirked his eyebrows at her. “Oi, Daphne!” Sirius yelled across the common room at a dark-haired seventh year girl. She looked up, brushing her curls behind her ear. Sirius grinned, “How about you and me, next Hogsmeade weekend?”

A large crash caused both of them to look around. Remus stood at his table. A stack of books had fallen on the floor. His ink bottle was upended over his essay. He looked at Sirius, eyes wide.

Daphne smiled pityingly at Remus, her mouth scrunching up and her eyebrows raising. Sirius immediately regretted his choice of girls. She looked back at Sirius, biting her lip like she was trying to be seductive.

“Yeah, alright. It’s a date.” Sirius turned back to Lily.

“There, see? I have a date. With a perfectly ordinary girl.”

“You think asking a girl on a date is proof? Please. You’re pathetic, Black.”

“Whatever you say, Evans. But I don’t have a crush on Remus.”

At that moment, the very person in question rushed passed, head bent, all his books clutched to his chest. Sirius watched him leave up the dormitory staircase. He thought about following, but then Lily cleared her throat loudly.

“Shut your mouth, Black, unless you want to catch flies.” Sirius snapped his mouth shut; his stomach flipped over. Lily gave him a pointed look.

“Hey, Sirius, ready for practice? James interrupted, his broom over his shoulder and his glasses askew. “Hey Lily.” He ruffled up his hair. Lily rolled her eyes and began taking books and parchment out of her bag, setting up a nice work station around herself.

“What were you two talking about? James asked when they were on the other side of the portrait hole. His hand had gone subconsciously back into his hair again.

“Not you, if that’s what you were wondering.” James’ hand fell limply at his side.

“Buck up, mate. You’ll get her eventually.” James looked hopeful. “Every guy knows if you just nag and nag and nag, eventually the girl will be so annoyed by you she’ll be forced to say yes.” James shoved him.

“Have you ever thought about just… moving on? Going out with someone else?”

“Well, yeah, of course I have. It’s not really that simple, I guess. You can’t exactly make your feelings disappear by dating someone else.”

“Oh.” Sirius swallowed. “What do you do then? If she never likes you?”

"I guess… we’ll go our separate ways and forget each other eventually.”

“Oh.”

The rest of the Gryffindor team was already in the locker room, changed into their quidditch robes, waiting for their last two team members to arrive. Ben sat half asleep against a chair. Dervla sat in the chair, playing absentmindedly with his hair. James clapped his hands loudly as he came in, knocking Ben out of his stupor and startling Spence so bad he jumped to attention. Dervla whipped her hand away from Ben’s hair and stood up, trying to act like she hadn’t been doing anything.

“Alright,” said James. “Obviously we took a bit of hit during this last game.” Dervla snorted. “We can all agree that Slytherin are dirty cheaters.”“You got that right,” said Mallory.

“Hear, hear,” Dervla said.

“While Zebrowski may have deserved what he got,” he glared at Dervla, “We can’t afford the risk to our team. Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw are far less likely to play dirty. Or at least not as dirty as Slytherin.”

“I wouldn’t put it past Miguel,” Spencer said.

“While I’ll admit he may have to tendency to bend the rules, Hufflepuff’s skill is no match for ours. If we put the work in and practice hard, we should have no trouble beating them in our next match.”

Hufflepuff’s quidditch team had been on the steady decline for years, as they lost more and more of their quality players to graduation. Sirius couldn’t remember a single year where Hufflepuff hadn’t lost to Gryffindor. Come to think of it, he couldn’t remember the last time Hufflepuff had won at all. The captain, Miguel Suarez was in his seventh year, and gradually getting more and more desperate.

Sirius distinctly remembered his subtle attempts to sabotage the Ravenclaw team the previous year that ended with Ravenclaw’s seeker careening into the stands coming just short of crushing Peter, and sending Remus jumping so violently out of the way he landed on top of Sirius. Sirius had burst into laughter, holding Remus off his chest. Remus’ eyes were wide, his face the color of the Gryffindor’s scarlet uniform.

“Sirius, are you paying attention?”

“What?” Sirius looked at James, his heart skipping in alarm.

“I asked if you were paying attention,” said James. “I was just saying that we have to beat Hufflepuff by a wide enough margin to take the lead, and I’ve devised some new tactics to help take them down.” James pulled a giant black board out of a crevice behind one of the lockers and began drawing arrows and marks across it.

“Alright. Their chasers have trouble working together. We know they don’t pass as often as they should, and they aren’t coordinated enough as a team to have any planned attack strategies. It will be really easy to divide them and keep them from getting the Quaffle. That way we make Mallory’s job easier, not that she needs us to, and we make Hufflepuff’s keeper’s job harder. What’s her name again? Hopkins? She’s good, so we need to have a strategy against her. We need to score goals and catch the snitch if we’re going to take the lead. Dervla, I want you working on your reflexes. Their seeker has the hand-eye coordination of a blind walrus, but I still want you sharp. Slytherin wouldn’t have one if you’d still been in the game. Mallory, you should work with her. The pair of you need to work on catching and observing, make sure you can focus on what your doing, but be aware of what’s happening around you at the same time.

“Sireen, Spencer, we will be practicing with Quaffle. We should work on formation, and strategies for keeping the Quaffle away from the other team. Sirius and Ben, your job is to hit the bludgers at everyone on the field try and distract us, take us by surprise. These are the things that cost us a win. Let’s go.”

The team marched out of the locker room, striding confidently onto the field. Sirius’ heart beat its own erratic rhythm in his rib cage. Lily’s words kept echoing in his head. “It’s all right to admit you have a crush.”

“I don’t have a crush,” he said out loud.

“What was that?” James asked.

“Sorry, nothing. I’m just talking to myself.” He mounted his broom and kicked off into the air.

The practice lasted barely an hour before James brought it to a screeching halt. Dervla and Ben were yelling at each other again. Mallory had become so bored watching them, she’d parked herself behind one of the goal hoops and was resting her arms in it. Sirius had failed a spectacular three times to stop the bludger as it was coming his direction, and was now sporting a fabulous bloody nose, which he was trying to staunch against the sleeve of his robes.

“Here, let me look at that,” he said, once they were back on the ground. He grabbed Sirius by the jaw, dragging his hand away from his face, drew his wand and said “Episkey.”

Sirius put his hand back on his nose. The sensation was strange, very hot at first, then very cold. He wiped his nose across the back of his hand. At the very least the bleeding seemed to have stopped.

“Nice work, Prongs, you should be a healer,” said Sirius.

“Nah, not enough style.” Sirius shrugged. James looked around at the rest of his team. Dervla’s hair stuck up strangely from the wind. Ben’s face was red, he looked ready to shoot steam out his ears. Mallory had the stitching pattern of her gloves imprinted down the side of her face from leaning on her arm for too long. James rubbed his palm over his brow, like he was trying to get rid of a headache and sighed.

“You’re all dismissed,” he told them. “Get some rest.”

When they had all left, he dragged his hands down his face. Sirius would have laughed, except his heart was pounding to hard.

“I don’t know what I’m going to do about Ben and Dervla. Their stupid fights are what cost us the cup last year.” They turned a corner, dodging Peeves as he zoomed by, holding a jar of some unknown substance sure to cause hell for students and teachers alike.

“And you, Sirius. I know you’re a better player than this. What’s going on? Is it about what happened during the match? Because I’m pretty sure the best way to ensure you get hit by the bludger again is by not trying to hit it.”

“No, it’s not that. I just... I don't know.” What was he supposed to say? He was too busy thinking about his best friend? About their stupid fight? About Remus apologizing to him in the Hospital Wing, trying to make up? About that stupid conversation with bloody Lily Evans? And those nine stupid words. Nine little words that meant everything. 

“It’s all right to admit you have a crush."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, Hufflepuffs. It turns out that Hufflepuff sucking at Quidditch is actually weirdly important to the story, so... I myself am a Slytherin, and we've all seen how lousy they were in the last Quidditch game. And in general.  
> I'm visiting my cousins next week, so there probably won't be chapter, and just as it's starting to really heat up. Dang. It'll get more intense real soon, just you wait.  
> Like, Comment, etc, etc...Much Love,  
> -1TruFangirl


	24. A Potions Lesson

The Potions Classroom opened to a stream of fourth years, and the pungent odor of burnt oatmeal. Remus dodged past the fourth years into the classroom, coughing through the fumes and the smell.

“You all right, there, Remus?” Lily said lightly, coming up behind him and thumping him on the back.

“Fine, just…” he gestured vaguely at the air around him, dropping his things by their usual table. Sirius skirted round the table and dropped his things at the opposite corner of the table and began setting up his cauldron without looking up, at abnormal speed . Lily moved beside Remus, watching Sirius with raised eyebrows. James took up the remaining space on the table next to Sirius. Peter approached the end of the table, eyebrows furrowed, shoulders drooping. His bag slipped to the ground.

“I suppose I’ll just work with Melby, shall I?” He said, a sour note creeping into his voice.

“Sorry, Pete,” said James, who kept flicking his head in Lily’s direction, in what he evidently assumed was a conspicuous manner. Peter followed his gaze, rolled his eyes, and moved to set up his station beside Owen Melby, a Hufflepuff who had the tendency to be overenthusiastic.

“Good afternoon, everybody,” said Professor Slughorn from the front of the class, smiling jovially through his enormous silver mustache. “For this lesson, please turn to page one-hundred and sixty-two. For our next lesson on defensive potions, we will be brewing a draught of invisibility. This potion comes in handy because it’s more effective than a disillusionment charm, and less bulky than an invisibility cloak, however, due to the difficulty of the preparation, most wizards opt for the easier, if slightly less convenient.

“My only words or advice for this potion is to read the instructions carefully. Any missteps and the result will be disastrous. No one want to miss dinner to clean their potion off the walls, eh? You may begin.”

Remus released a generous breath of air as he glanced through the instructions in the textbook. The ingredient list alone spanned two pages. He tapped the burner underneath the cauldron with his wand and a small flame sparked into life.

“Have you got any extra beetle eyes, Lily? I’ve run out.” Remus said above the chatter, digging through his potions kit.

“Yeah, sure,” she pushed a pile of her left over beetle eyes to Remus.

“Thanks.” Lily stopped his hand halfway through bringing the beetle eyes to the brim of his cauldron.

“Crush them first.”

“Right, sorry. Merlin, it’s a miracle I managed to pass my potions O.W.L.”

“I think you’re better at potions than you think you are, you just have to pay better attention to what you’re doing.”

“Have I crushed these properly?”

Lily looked over and nodded. Remus tossed them into the cauldron. He pulled his robes off his shoulders. The room was hot and rapidly filling with steam.  
Slughorn’s hazy form wandered around the room as they worked, peering into cauldrons, making comments and giving tips. Remus fidgeted with his newly chopped daisy roots. He was going to have to start again. The poor roots were too badly butchered to be used. Sighing, he trudged across the room to the store cupboard to get some fresh ones.

He glanced at Lily’s potion. She was already halfway through her potion. It was bubbling gently as she stirred slowly turning a light shade of red. Remus rolled his sleeves up and took up his knife; he set to work cutting up the roots, measuring carefully to make sure they were all even.

A large bang startled Remus and the knife slipped over his finger. He swore, looking up to see Sirius, standing rigid, looking in his direction. Sirius glanced quickly away, his face covered in soot and his hair blown back haphazardly with its own sort of elegance that made Remus want to kick himself. He stuck his bleeding finger in his mouth.

“You want me to fix that for you?” Lily asked, the corners of her mouth turning up, traces of laughter glinting in her eyes. Remus gave her a bemused expression holding out his hand.

“Episky,” she muttered, waving her wand over the cut. It sealed almost instantly.

“Thanks.” Remus was about as good at healing spells as he was at potions. Lily stopped him adding another ingredient to his cauldron, gesturing to the daisy roots still sitting on the table in front of him. Remus worked his bottom lip through his teeth. “What would I do without you, Lily?”

“Probably blown the school to bits by now. Although, I think Sirius has you covered on that front.” Columns of black smoke still puffed lazily from his cauldron. He looked flustered, blinking rapidly, and avoiding Remus’ eye. He licked his lips and swiped his hand across his forehead, only succeeding in smudging soot across his brow. Lily held Sirius’ gaze for half a second; she offered him a smug smile and he glared at her, then resumed work trying to fix his damaged potion.

“Good heavens, Mr. Black,” Slughorn said, waving the smoke away with his hand and chuckling. A little less leech juice, next time, perhaps.”

“It slipped out of my hand,” Sirius muttered, looking darkly over the contents of his cauldron, hands shaking slightly.

“Ah, Miss Evans.” He looked into her cauldron. “Perfect, as always, my dear.”

“Thank you, Professor.” She smiled.

“You’ll be coming to my Christmas Party, I hope?” he asked.

“I’d be delighted, sir.” Lily said, smiling. Slughorn patted her shoulder.

“And you’d be invited too, Mr. Black.”

“Thank you, Professor, but I have other plans,” said Sirius, barely managing to keep the bitterness out of his voice.

“Ah, that’s too bad. One of these days I’ll get you into one of my parties. Your brother is a delight, you know. I’m sure he’d enjoy it if you came along as well.”

“I highly doubt that,” Sirius said under his breath, just quiet enough that Slughorn, who was now moving around the table, would not be able to hear it.

“Good work, Mr. Potter, a little more stirring would do you just shades from perfect.” James rolled his eyes when Slughorn turned his back. Slughorn grimaced at Remus’ cauldron.

“Ah,” he said, his mouth curling into a frown. “You’ve had help from Lily I see.” He wandered away. Remus exhaled, leaning against the table.

“Hey, if you’re not doing anything, you could come to his party with me,” Lily said in what seemed to be an attempt to cheer him up. Two separate noises of distress issued from the other side of the table. James was looking at him wide-eyed. Sirius maintained a determined expression into the smoky interior of his cauldron, his eyes watering slightly.

“Um, I don’t know, Lily, Slughorn doesn’t seem to like me much.” The Potions Master had always shown a certain dislike, even fear for Remus whenever he approached. Remus couldn’t say he was necessarily surprised. He glanced down at the set of thin scars that trailed down his arms and moved subconsciously to pull his sleeves back over them.

“Well,” said Lily, oblivious. “You are dead awful at potions.”

Remus laughed. “All right then, why not.” Lily grinned.

“That reminds me,” said James suddenly. “Are you doing anything for Christmas, Remus? My Mum’s asked me to invite you over. Sirius is coming already, seeing as he sort of lives with us now.”

“I am?” said Sirius lifting his head abruptly from inside another smoke column.

“Of course, did I forget to mention that? So, what about it, Rem?”

“I can’t actually.” He gestured vaguely to his body, then at the sky. “My, er, furry little problem.”

“Oh, of course. Sorry, Rem. We’ll just have to make it next year then.” Lily looked confused. Remus just shrugged at her. She stopped his arm, absent-mindedly stirring his potion.

“Keep stirring that and it’ll melt your cauldron.” He looked down. His potion was boiling angrily. It had gone far past the scarlet it was supposed to be and had turned a dark crimson, the color of blood.

“Right, sorry.” He turned back to his book for the next instruction.

The end of the lesson drew nearer; Remus his potion, acceptable at the very least, into a vial and held it up. It was a few shades darker than Lily’s, who had managed to achieve a potion that was perfectly crystal clear, but all in all he had done well. Sirius hadn’t been able to get his potion right either, and the result was a gloppy lump of grey sludge in his vial. He stared at his distastefully.

Remus frowned. It wasn’t Sirius’ favorite subject, but he did usually manage to succeed at potions. At least, he usually wasn’t this far off the mark. Even with Lily’s help Sirius consistently managed to compose a better potion than he had.

“Alright, please bring your potions up to the front of the class,” said Slughorn as the minutes dwindled to the end of class.

“Would you like me to bring yours up, Lily?” Remus asked.

“Thanks, Remus.” She handed him her potion.

“Hey, could you take mine, too?” James asked.

“No problem. Sirius?” Without a word, barely glancing up, Sirius handed Remus his potion and began cleaning up his corner of the table. Remus delivered the potions and returned just as the bell rang. Sirius was out the door before Remus had even begun to put away his cauldron.

“That was odd,” Remus said, staring at the door.

“Eh, it’s Sirius, he’s probably still bitter about what old Sluggy said to him. Would you like help cleaning up, Rem?” James said.

“Yeah.”

“I’ve got to get to Arithmancy. I’ll see you for prefect duties, Rem?”

“Yeah.”

Lily left. Remus watched the door for several minutes as he put away his things. James had to stop him trying to shove his leftover potions ingredients in the wrong boxes. James kept glancing at him curiously as they made their way back to Gryffindor Tower.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so excited for where this fic is going to go. So excited. I have been trying to build up a sort of buffer of chapters so we have no more of those pesky weekends where I don't finish writing in time to publish. So far I've proved unsuccessful. I will be spending all of next week in a large house in the-middle-of-nowhere Idaho, all by myself, which means loads of time for writing! And potentially bears. We'll see.  
> Like, Comment, etc, etc... Much Love,  
> -1TruFangirl


	25. An Awkward Date

Sirius woke long before anyone else in the dorm, heart racing, sweat collecting around his collar and the nape of his neck. The nightmare had been another one from childhood. He shook it off. He could hear the gentle snoring from the two beds on either side of him. He shoved the curtains on his four-poster aside and swung his feet out of the bed onto the carpet.

Remus had forgotten to close his curtains all the way; the gentle light from the window fell onto his face. Remus grunted softly and Sirius stiffened, afraid he had been caught, but Remus only pulled his scarlet blanket further up his shoulder and didn’t wake up. Sirius chastised himself. He needed a shower.

The hot water beating on his face was a relief. He closed his eyes and let it stream down his body, wet his hair, and wash away the sweat and grime of a restless night. It was blissful moment of escape. He finished his shower quickly, twirling his hair up in a towel, wrapping another around his waist.

From the trunk at the end of his bed he pulled a pair of black skinny jeans, a wrinkled t-shirt from some muggle shop and a leather jacket he’d gotten as a gift. Sirius discarded his towels and dressed quickly, eager to get out of the room before any of the other three woke up too. Sirius retreated back to the bathroom, clearing the fog from the mirror with a murmured incantation and drying his hair with a wave of his wand. He just reached the door when Remus spoke, his voice muffled against his pillow, groggy with sleep.

“Where’re you going, Padfood?”

“Oh, er, breakfast,” Sirius said.

“Breakfast?” Remus sat up, glancing at the clock in his nightstand. “It’s six in the morning. On a Saturday.”

Sirius shrugged. “I’m hungry?” Remus frowned at him.

“Is that the jacket I gave you for your birthday?”

Sirius looked down. “Uh, yeah, I suppose it is.” His insides seemed to curl in on themselves.

“I haven’t seen you wear that in ages. I though it was too small for you by now.”

“Oh, um… I used an enlargement charm.” Sirius wanted to kick himself for blushing.

“Mm. I didn’t know you liked it that much.”

“I have to go, Remus.” Sirius shut the door quickly behind him and stumbled down the stairs.

In spite of Sirius’ intentions to avoid him, Remus showed up twenty minutes later in the Great Hall, hair mussed, stretching out sore limbs. Remus had grown taller than Sirius over the summer. His sleeves were pushed up to his elbows and scars stretched down his lanky arms. There was one scar that started at his jaw and trailed down his collarbone, disappearing into his sweater. Sirius wondered absently how far the scar went. Where it ended. Remus sat down across from him, yawning, and Sirius snapped his gaze back to his breakfast.

“Are you all right, Sirius?” Remus asked, slowly loading sausages onto his plate. Sirius stuffed half a piece of toast in his mouth and only nodded in response. Breakfast proceeded slowly. Each noise Sirius made seemed to echo in the near empty hall. Remus kept tapping his fork against his plate, licking his lips and opening his mouth like he meant to say something. Each time he did, Sirius’ breath hitched and he forced himself to stare into his plate.

Slowly, more and more people filtered into the hall. Remus opened his mouth again, and finally spoke.

“So, what are your plans with Daphne?”

“What?”

“Your, um… date.” His voice stuck on the word ‘date’ like he was biting back a laugh.

Sirius swiped his tongue over his teeth. “Oh. Right. I thought I’d see what she wanted to do.”

“Mm. Girls love it when guys don’t know what they’re doing.”

“Because you’d know,” Sirius said, a little sharper than he meant to. Remus leaned back from the table, drawing himself up and laughing humorlessly, eyebrows pulling into a frown. He looked up to the entrance to the Great Hall then back again, composing himself.

“You’re ‘date’ is here.” He withdrew from the bench, smiling at Daphne as he passed her and was gone.

“Hey, Sirius,” Daphne said, sidling into the seat beside him.

“Hi.” Sirius glared at door, chewing absently at the pad of his thumb. He barely noticed Daphne snatch a piece of toast off his plate.

“I was thinking we could start the day in the Three Broomstick,” she said pulling on the sleeve of his jacket. Sirius wished she wouldn’t.

“Yeah, okay.”

“Then Honeydukes, of course.” She continued on, reciting the plans she had clearly conceived in great detail. That proved what Remus knew, anyway. Sirius stopped paying attention. He kept getting distracted by her arm on his sleeve. When he went to move her hand gently off his arm she took his hand weaved her fingers in his. Irritated, he made a show of knocking his knife onto the ground so he could dive under the table to retrieve it.

“Sorry, what was that?”

Daphne heaved a dramatic sigh, grabbing his hand again. “I said, at the end we can sneak up the Shrieking Shack.” She leaned in and whispered, “It’s supposed to be haunted.” She gave him a grin that was evidently meant to entice and seduce him into agreeing. He plucked his hand out of hers again.

“That’s a bad idea.”

“What are you talking about? Are you scared?” she teased.

“No, but we’re not supposed to go there. It’s boarded up for a reason.”

“Oh, please. When has the formidable Sirius Black ever cared about getting into trouble?” she scoffed. “You are scared.”

“Fine,” said Sirius, exasperated. “We’ll do whatever you want.”

Daphne grinned. “I knew I could get you to agree.” She kissed him on the cheek. It was wet. Sirius stopped himself from swiping the back of his hand over the place her lips touched his face. “C’mon.” She led him form the table.

They passed James, Lily and several of her friends. Sirius shot James a look, eyebrows raised. James shrugged as if to say, "you’re on your own, mate." Lily looked at him with a slight grin that caused his heart to take a dive into his stomach.

“I just have to get my jacket.” Daphne dragged him through the corridors, leaving him to wait for her in the Gryffindor common room.

In Sirius’ opinion her jacket wasn’t going to do much against the frigid air that had taken up residence around the castle. The snow was knee deep where it hadn’t been shoveled away. They walked through the streets of Hogsmeade, Daphne pulling him by the elbow and Sirius following obediently. Through most of the trip Sirius only observed. They met several of Daphne’s friends in the Three Broomstick and she spent nearly an hour talking animatedly with them. Sirius occupied the time drawing through the rings his bottle of butterbeer left on their table. Every once in a while, Daphne would pull him into his arms and flash him around, as if to remind everyone that she had managed to get a date with Sirius.

Sirius followed her through all her Christmas shopping too, picking up a few things for his friends as well. Daphne stashed the rest of her shopping in her bag and turned to him, grabbing both his hands and squeezing his fingers, biting her lip.

“Now, how about we go check out the Shrieking Shack?” She didn’t wait for him to respond but glanced around conspiratorially and pulled him behind the nearest shop. He followed with thinly veiled resignation. At the very least she would quickly discover that there was no way to get into the shrieking shack from the outside. He, Remus, James, and Peter had scored every part of that building. If a werewolf, a dog, a stag and a rat couldn’t find a way through after months of searching, there wasn’t one. At best Daphne would give up and they would go home.

Daphne stopped at the fence separating the shrieking shack from the rest of Hogsmeade, her face alight with mischief. Sirius thought briefly that she would make a great marauder if she weren’t so…overwhelming. She slid through the fence, holding his hand out and wiggling her fingers for him.

“Look.” Sirius watched her fingers, a little mesmerized. “It’s getting late. Why don’t we just go back up to the castle? The Shrieking Shack is kind of boring anyway.”

“Siri!” she pouted. She had also adopted this bizarre nickname for him. “You promised me we would go explore.”

“Yeah but…” 

“Come on, Siri, please…?” She drew out the last word, pushing out her bottom lip and wiggling her fingers again. Merlin, Sirius had never felt more like a dog in his life. He ducked through the fence, grabbing her hand; she pulled him into the snow drifts and flicked out her wand to melt a path to the Shack.

Something felt deeply wrong about this. Like he was trespassing on Remus’ territory with another person. Like the spot belonged to Remus and bringing anyone else on it was some kind of betrayal of trust. The leather jacket around his shoulders itched. He pulled the collar away from his throat, shivering.

“Hey, Daphne, it’s going to get dark soon. Are you sure you don’t want to just go back up to the castle now? Maybe we can come back another time? It’s too cold for this.” His last attempt fell on deaf ears.

“You can lend me your jacket, then.” Sirius drew the jacket closer to him. He’d never believed in fate or destiny, and he thought divination was a load of bogus. But if ever there was some divine system in place in the universe to help him get out of this, Sirius wished it would do something now.

“Black! Jones!” said the sharp voice of Professor McGonagall from the fence. In one hand, her wand was lit. The beam fell directly across their path. In the other she held her robes, to keep them from trailing in the snow. “What on Earth are the pair of you doing out there? It’s far past time you were supposed to be back at the castle.”

Relief flooded Sirius’ chest. “Yes, Professor.” This time it was Sirius’ turn to pull Daphne back through the fence. Daphne made her distaste obvious as she passed McGonagall, narrowing her eyes and huffing.

“If I catch you out there again, it’ll be fifteen points from Gryffindor.”

“Yes, Ma’am.”

“Mr. Black, if I may have a word with you?”

“Go on, Daphne, I’ll meet you back at the castle.” 

“I’ll be waiting for you in the Entrance Hall.” Daphne kissed him on the cheek again as she left and this time Sirius did wipe his cheek with his palm as soon as she was gone. He turned back to McGonagall who had her lips pursed.

“You be careful with that girl, Mr. Black. I’ve been watching you all day, and I can’t say you seemed to have been enjoying yourself too much.”

“Professor?”

McGonagall sighed through her nose. “She can be a touch… manipulative. Just watch yourself, Black.”

“Um, sure Professor.” McGonagall turned and left Sirius in the snow, her wand light bobbing away into the distance. Bewildered, Sirius trudged back to the castle alone.

As promised, Daphne was waiting for him, twirling the ends of her scarf through her fingers and looking bored.

“What did McGonagall want?” she asked.

“Forgot to turn in a homework assignment,” he said shortly. She looked at him skeptically, like she was going to question him.

“Should we go back up the common room?” Sirius said, cutting her off as she opened her mouth. She rolled her eyes, just to make sure he was aware she knew he was lying. They walked in silence through the castle back to Gryffindor Tower.

“Bubotuber,” Sirius told the Fat Lady. The common room was warm and filled with laughter. The joy of the weekend and the approaching winter holidays seemed to have put everyone in a good mood. In seconds several of Daphne’s friends had surrounded her and were asking questions about the date. She began explaining their plans, and their abrupt interruption by Professor McGonagall. Lily came up behind Sirius and tapped him on the shoulder.

“Your date went all right then?”

Sirius turned. “Yeah, it was fine. She had fun.”

“Did you?”

“Sure. It was a full day with a pretty girl. What’s not to like?” Lily wasn’t convinced. “As a matter of fact,” Sirius continued, a sudden idea coming to him. He turned back to the group of girls behind him.

“Daphne?” Daphne turned batting her eyelashes. Her friends went unnervingly quiet around her.

“Yeah?”

“You know, Professor Slughorn is have another Christmas party this year, and I’ve been invited.”

“He invited you?” she asked, her eyes alight, interest piqued.

“We’re allowed a date.” He dashed his tongue along his bottom lip and tilted his head. “Would you like to come with me?”

Her eyes traced him. Crossing her arms, she smiled, though Sirius couldn’t say it was a very attractive look on her. She looked like she was about to dive into a piece of prey.

“Sure, why not,” she said.

“See you then.” 

Sirius turned back to Lily, looking at her like it proved his point. She snorted derisively. Sirius abandoned her before his confidence could completely deteriorate, crossing the room as quickly as he could manage.

“Sirius!” Remus called to him, getting up from the chair from which he was studying and going to confront him at the staircase. Sirius sped up, ignoring him and barricading himself in the dorm before Remus could get to him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How about Daphne, huh? She's a character. She creeps me out a little bit if I'm honest. I keep inventing unintentionally relevant OCs.  
> Like, Comment, etc, etc... Much love,  
> -1TruFangirl


	26. Slughorn's Christmas Party

Sirius stood at the window, slowly buttoning up his shirt. Snowflakes fluttered past the window. It was past sunset, but the moon was glowing high in the sky, near full. It reflected off the snow, giving the grounds below a soft silver light. In less than twenty-four hours he would be at James’ house with Mr. and Mrs. Potter, playing quidditch in the yard with James, and eating food cooked by the Potters’ house elf Tootsie.

He’d never spent Christmas with the Potters’ before. Since he turned eleven, Sirius had always spent Christmas at Hogwarts, anything to get away from his family. After second year Remus, James and Peter had joined him. Sirius always knew James’ parents wanted their son home for Christmas, but for some reason it had never occurred to him that spending Christmas at the Potters’ would be a possibility for him too. All he had to do was get through one torturous night with Daphne and Slughorn and then he would be free.

The bathroom door opened as Sirius was putting on his dress robes. Remus emerged, already dressed for the Christmas party. His robes were shabby, but he’d grown into them over the last few years, though a few extra inches of ankle peaked from underneath the hem. For several seconds, Sirius couldn’t bring himself to break his gaze. Remus’ hair was still damp from his shower. It hung in soft curls on his forehead. He brushed it to the side with his thumb breaking Sirius’ line of sight with his arm for just long enough so that he could look away.

“Sirius—” Remus began, but Sirius was already out the door, guilt burning in his stomach, his heart hammering. He wiped his palms on his robes.

Daphne was waiting in the common room. Her hair was pulled back into a fluffy ponytail on top of her head. Her dress was blood red. It was a little too glittery for Sirius’ liking. She was easily the most conspicuous object in the room.

“You look beautiful,” he said. He tried to look at her face when he said it, but his eyes kept traveling back up to her ponytail. He resisted the compulsion to flick it just to see if it would bounce back. 

“Er, should we…” Sirius gestured vaguely at the portrait hole. What he supposed to take her hand? Or hold out his arm for her to take? He had never been to a party with a girl he was supposed to care about. He’d taken Narcissa to a few parties, but he couldn’t remember much of those now, and he hadn’t liked her much anyway. All the etiquette skills he had learned from years living with his mother seemed to have escaped him memory. Sirius settled for leaving his hands at his sides so Daphne could make the decision herself. She slipper her arm through his, linking their elbows and leading them through the corridors. They had been hung with Christmas decoration. It occurred to Sirius that he would miss the Christmas feast this year, but the disappointment didn’t last.

Slughorn’s party wasn’t easy to miss. Music echoed down the corridor. Golden light spilled through the open door. Sirius stepped aside to let Daphne in first. The room was crowded with people, many of whom were wearing robes so intricate and eye-grabbing, they made Daphne’s look tame. One woman glided by in a large boa and a dress made entirely of feathers. When Sirius got a closer look, he realized her dress was actually made of live birds. They squawked at him angrily, ruffling their feathers. The woman settled her birds and glared at Sirius through her spectacles. A wizard wandered by wearing dress robes that lit up, flashing different colors in time to the music. One little old witch had on a violently purple pair of robes with a train so long it was still trailing past Sirius even after she had vanished back into the crowd. He watched several people trip over it as they attempted to get past her.

Every inch of wall space in the office seemed to be filled with decorations. The windows were draped in garlands and the curtains twinkled with fairy lights. Lanterns hung from the ceiling as did, Sirius noted warily, several clumps of mistletoe hidden in inconspicuous corners. A massive Christmas tree to rival those in the Great Hall sat in the back of the room, decked in gold and silver and topped with an elegant angel from which the music seemed to be issuing.

Professor Slughorn seemed to slither from the middle of a group of professional-looking witches, all with quills behind their ears or pads of parchment in their pockets. “Sirius! My boy, what has you finally coming to one of my parties? I had begun to give up hope of ever getting you here.” Slughorn chuckled jovially, bouncing through guests to speak to Sirius. “You brother and I often talk about you and your family.”

To Sirius’ horror, Slughorn seemed to reach into the crowd and pull Regulus out of the throng like a rabbit out of a hat. Regulus looked equally disturbed.

“Regulus! You’ve finally managed to get your brother to one of my little functions.”

Regulus sulked. “I haven’t done anything, sir. I don’t know how he got here.”

The smile slipped briefly off Slughorn’s face, but Regulus’ tone didn’t seem to have entirely cracked the illusion that Slughorn seemed to have constructed. “Come now, you’re brothers. I’m sure Sirius was eager to see you tonight.”

“I Sirius had any interest in seeing me, he wouldn’t have run away.” Regulus smirked like Sirius couldn’t tell the words were a clear admission.

“Aww, you miss me.” Regulus rolled his eyes.

“It’s hard on mother with you not there.”

“As if our mother ever gave a flying rats arse what—”

“Now, there’s no need to use that kind of language!” Slughorn said, just as Regulus reached into his pocket to pull out his wand. Sirius spent several long, agonizing seconds glaring at his brother. Regulus held his gaze, nostrils flaring wildly. An ugly silence festered between them.

Slughorn laughed, but the sound was hollow and he stopped quickly.

“Ahem, Sirius, who is this you’ve brought with you?” Slughorn asked when the silence seemed to become too much for him to bear.

“Oh, that’s—er—she’s Daphne, she’s my…” He hesitated, not quite sure what she was.

She grabbed tighter onto his arm. “I’m his girlfriend.” Regulus snorted. Daphne’s eyes snapped to him. Sirius stared at Daphne. Slughorn stepped forward, shoving his bulk between the three of them. He finally seemed to have notices how awkward the situation had become. Sweat glistened at his hairline. Regulus turned away and was gone.

“Well,” said Slughorn, slowly. Without another word, he sunk back into the crowd too. Sirius shoved his hands through his hair, barely feeling when his fingers caught in a knot and he yanked them through.

“Sirius, do you want to get us some drinks?” Daphne said, fiddling with his robes. She was still holding onto his arm

“Yeah, sure.” He peeled himself away from her, eager to be free, and craned his neck for a drink table. It was at the back of the room near the Christmas Tree.

He weaved through the partygoers, dodging one young man who was busy typing something into a large device, and was too preoccupied to watch where he was going. Why had he come to this party again?

“Sirius!” Oh, right. Sirius grabbed two drinks off the table and darted back the way he had come, ignoring Remus’ voice. “Sirius!” Remus said again. Then his voice was swallowed by the music and the chatter. Sirius stuffed a drink glass into Daphne’s hand and looked around, searching for Remus. He stood by the Christmas tree, looking ruffled, shoving a hand through his hair in frustration. Lily came up behind him, tapping him on the shoulder. They had a brief and animated conversation, then Remus’ entire body sagged and he shrugged. Lily left soon after.

“Si-rius,” Daphne sing-songed, waving a hand in front of his face.

“What?” Sirius asked. Daphne bit her lip coyly, looking pointedly at the ceiling. Sirius looked up too, and then his heart plummeted into his feet. Daphne’s lips were on his before he even had the chance to look down. He froze, so startled he forgot what to do next. The kiss was brief. Daphne cut it off quickly, stepping back and smiling at him without humor.

“That’s what I thought.”

“What you… what?” Sirius said.

“You don’t care about me at all. You’re just trying to make him jealous.”

“I’m what?” He unfroze, stepping back. Panic sliced through his chest. Daphne’s smirk was full of malice. Sirius was reminded of his cousin Bellatrix. She smirked at him the same way before hexing him into a wall when he was thirteen. Then his mother had reacted as if somehow it was entirely his fault.

“You brought me here, and took me to Hogsmeade to make your friend Lupin jealous.” Daphne kept stepping closer, backing Sirius into the wall behind him. Sirius’ breath hitched as she leaned in and whispered in his ear.

“If you don’t do what I want I’ll tell the whole school you’re in love with him.” And she was gone. Sirius’ neck was warm from her breath. He balled is hands into fists to stop them shaking.

“Sirius!” Sirius jumped. “I want to talk to you,” Remus said. Sirius pushed past him, heading for the door. Remus grabbed his elbow, swinging him around.

“Why are you avoiding me, Sirius,” he said.

“I’m not avoiding you.” Sirius said, shaking off Remus’ grip with ease and slipping out of the room. Remus followed him.

“Don’t pretend like you haven’t been, you haven’t talked to me in days. Every time I try to start a conversation you walk away. Have I done something wrong?”

“I have to go Remus.”

“What, did Daphne ask you to meet her in an empty classroom so you could continue your snogging session?”

“So there’s a girl who likes me and wants to kiss me, what’s wrong with that, Moony?”

“Oh, right because you’ve been out with so many girls before.”

“What do you care who I go out with? I don’t really see how it’s any of your business.”

“It’s my business because you’re my best friend.”

“Oh, that’s hilarious.” Sirius’ nerves were tingling. “You never seem to care when James goes fawning after Lily like he can’t help himself.”

“That’s different, he just—”

“It’s different? And if he actually gets her to go out with him? If they start snogging in abandoned classrooms? Is it different then?”

“James has liked Lily for ages. I wouldn’t be surprised if—”

“But you’re surprised that I might like the snog a girl too?”

“Do you even know Daphne?”

“Well enough.”

Remus scoffed. “You know nothing about her and your kissing her at a stupid party you didn’t even want to go to in the first place.”

“Last time I checked, Moony, you didn’t get to decide who I do or don’t kiss.”

Remus didn’t respond, breathing heavy. His eyes flicked down to Sirius’ lips, then back up. For a split-second Sirius thought Remus was going to kiss him too. They were close enough for it. How would Sirius respond if it was Remus kissing him instead of Daphne? He could close his eyes and pull Remus into him by his jaw, crush their lips together and push his hand up Remus’ shirt.

“Daphne’s waiting for you,” Remus said, ripping Sirius out of his fantasy. “I’m going to bed.”

“Remus, wait—” But Remus didn’t turn back around. Sirius sunk down the wall, sloughing off his dress robes and dumping his head in his hands. It was only a few minutes before Lily came peaked out the door.

“Sirius? Have you seen Remus? He said he wanted to talk to you, but he’s disappeared.”

“Yeah, I’ve seen him. He went to bed.”

“Oh, well thanks anyways.” She retreated back into the party, leaving Sirius alone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm kind of mad. I broke my streak. I was all prepared to update on time, and then I got stuck on a plane for eight hours. Apparently a cargo jet popped a tire on the runway.  
> To add insult to injury, I then managed to lose access to this fic on word. So then I had to completely rewrite the chapter. The first version was better.  
> Better late than never I guess... And just in time for Harry's birthday.  
> Like, Comment, etc, etc...  
> -1TruFangirl
> 
> Edit: This week, on "Did I Remember to Title This Chapter!!" (I did.)  
> I also got my word document back!! I'm literally crying. So now I've combined some of the old chapter with the new chapter. It's all still the same content though. (I'm so happy.)


	27. Interlude II

Four figures slinked through the pooling darkness. They were difficult to make out, cloaked in black to match the night, but they made no effort to conceal their approach or to disguise themselves from anyone who might have been looking out on them. All four carried wands. The first, a stocky woman who seemed to be leading them, pointed out ahead of her at a house the same as any other on the street, but she smiled, her short hair swinging out from the confines of her hood as she turned to the others.

“That’s the one the dark lord wants dead,” she told her companions. The younger woman next to her met her gaze, looking bored. She grated her teeth across her bottom lip, walking past the first woman and shoving open the gate of the first house on the block. The older woman rolled her eyes.

“What are you doing, Lestrange?”

“Aw, Judy, I’m just having a little bit of fun,” Lestrange said.

“Don’t call me that. The Dark Lord gave us specific orders.” Judy grabbed Lestrange by the hood, pulling her back. One of the men behind them gave a grunt.

“Why not have some fun?” His voice was rough. “I’m with Bella… What’s a few more muggle scum.” He snarled, baring his teeth. They were black and rotting, and sharpened into crude points. Judy curled her lip, and snorted.

“Fine. Go and play, but do it quickly; we have a job to do.” Giggling, the pair turned back into the yard and into the house, wands held aloft. Judy gestured to her final companion. He was even younger than Lestrange, barely out of Hogwarts. Judy sneered at him. His face was pale, lips pressed tight together. He flicked blond locks of hair from his face.

“You come with me,” she said, beckoning him forward with thin fingers. “Unless you’d rather join the monkeys.” She cocked her head to the house beside them as though bored. A scream issued from inside the house. There was a burst of green light. Judy turned back to the boy. He looked ill. Judy flashed her teeth at him, huffing a breath through her nose. “Or are you too weak, Malfoy?”

“The Dark—” he took a deep breath. “The Dark Lord trusts me.”

“Does he?” Judy laughed. “Prove your worth to me. Then we’ll see how the Dark Lord feels.” She approached the house farther down the street, not looking back to see if Malfoy was keeping up.

With a lazy flick of her wand she opened the gate, gliding up the path. Another wave and the front door clicked. Judy turned the handle open slowly. The door creaked open into a dark hallway. A strip of light fell from the doorway farthest down the hall. Laughter rang from the room. A perfect little family, ready to meet a perfect end. Beside her, Malfoy’s breathing got heavier.

“Shut it, or step outside, Malfoy,” Judy snarled through her teeth. His breath caught.

Judy stopped at the door.

The room was flooded with colored light. A Christmas Tree sat in the corner, glittering with all its decorations. Music played softly from a small radio perched on the window sill. The family was gathered around a table. All wore flimsy paper hats. There were six of them. The two parents, the targets, sat at either end of the table. Both workers for the ministry in high enough positions to warrant their deaths. A strange pity curled in her chest. They had no idea what was coming. They hadn’t even noticed her leaning in the doorway. There could be no witnesses of course. It would only take a few minutes, and they would all be dead.

To everyone around her, death seemed to be some great mystery, the next great adventure on the path of life. Judy new better. Death was simply an end, nothing more. There was no mystery, no adventure. It was just the end. And it always happened when you least expected it. Judy played with her wand, twirling it between her fingers. She made no sound, just waited.

It was the youngest girl who notices her first. She looked up from her plate and stared, her face set in confusion. Her father noticed next, following his daughter’s gaze and looking up too. He stood when he saw her grinning there. Next it was the mother. She shoved her chair out of the way and ran to block the rest of the children at the table, all girls. Judy dispatched her in seconds. She was on the floor, the last breath gone from her lips.

“No!” her husband shouted. Then he was gone too, fallen beside his wife. Their hair tangled together on the floor. The four girls were huddled together behind the table. The older ones blocked their younger siblings. The little girl was crying. She couldn’t have been older than seven. The look of pure terror on her face was enough to dig up what little sympathy was left from Judy’s chest. She smiled, and forced the siblings aside. They struggled against her spell.

“Avada Kedavra!” The little girl was dead. The first sister shuddered, dropping to her knees over the dead girl’s body. The second faced her, tears welling in her eyes.

“What do you want?” she croaked. She kept glancing to the adjacent room. Judy looked over, the poor girl’s wand was sitting on the couch, abandoned.

“Oh, I’ve already gotten what I wanted. You are just my prizes. But don’t worry. The Dark Lord is merciful. Your deaths will be as swift as your parents’. Don’t worry.”  
The first sibling looked up. “You killed her.” Her voice was broken and strained. She cradled the girl’s head in her arms.

“Yes, I killed her silly girl.”

There was a bang from the hall. Irate, Judy whipped around to look.

“You started without us?” Lestrange’s shrill shriek echoed from the doorway.

“Yes, I started without you, Bella. I told you to be quick.”

“Well at least we haven’t missed all the fun.” She waved her wand at the girl on her knees, sending her writhing to the ground, screaming. Her remaining sister fell to catch her grabbing her by the shoulders. Judy killed her.

“Finish it quickly, Bella, we don’t need to alert the neighbors.”

“The neighbors are all dead.” Lestrange said bluntly. But soon the third sister joined the rest.

“Where’s the last one?” Judy asked, glaring at Lestrange as though it was her fault. It wasn’t, but Judy didn’t like the woman.

“What last one?”

Judy rolled her eyes. “There was a fourth girl. Hogwarts age. She must have crawled off. Find her. Before I take you instead.” Lestrange stuck her tongue out, making a hideous face, and slunk off into the nearest hall. “You too Malfoy. If you find her, your orders are to kill her, understand?” Malfoy stared at the bodies of the floor, his eyes wide and rimmed with red. The older girls were near his age. Perhaps one of them had been in his year.

“Get moving.” Malfoy pressed the back of his hand to his mouth, swallowed hard, then stumbled through the room to the next hall. Judy watched him leave, then made her way slowly up the stairs, wand lighting her way, taking care to tread lightly.

Somewhere at the top of the stairs she could hear the sound of gentle whimpering. Judy peaked into the first room. It was the child’s bedroom. The walls were decorated lilac. Pictures of the family hung along the walls. The curtains were pulled back to let in the light from the full moon. The final girl’s breathing was loud enough Judy could hear it from the door, coming in shallow gasps. The poor girl seemed to think she was well hidden. Judy blasted the bed aside, revealing the girl curled in a ball against the wall. Clutching her wand to her chest and shaking, she rose slowly to her feet.

“Please, please don’t hurt me.” Judy had expected better. At least some kind of fight. This was pathetic. “I’ll do anything you ask me too, please. Her legs seemed to give out under her, she fell to her knees, dropping her wand. It rolled across the floor, and Judy crushed it beneath her shoe. The girl hugged herself, digging her fingernails into her arms and rocking back and forth, staring at the pieces of her wand on the floor.

“I don’t want to die, please. I don’t want to die…” he words deteriorated into mumbling and sobs.

“Avada Kedavra.” Judy watched the light drain from her eyes in an instant. With the toe of her boot, Judy kicked her over onto the floor. She lay there unmoving, eyes staring blankly into space. Judy made her way quickly down the stairs. Her companions waited for her in the hall.

“She’s dead.” Judy told them. Lestrange cackled loudly. Merlin, the woman didn’t just believe their task was necessary, she was having fun. “We report to the dark lord immediately.” She disapparated with a crack. The other appeared beside her seconds later in the looming shadow of what appeared to be an abandoned manor house. Malfoy lurched forward into the nearest bush and vomited. Judy rolled her eyes, leaving him to finish and marching down the path to the manor where the Dark Lord was waiting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Predictions anyone? I'm not going to lie, I had fun writing this chapter.  
> Like, Comment, etc, etc...Much Love  
> -1TruFangirl


	28. Christmas with the Potters

Sirius woke up when the first beams of sunlight finally managed to creep up over the window sill. He rolled onto his stomach, limbs groaning. His entire right side ached, and his arm had fallen asleep from the way he’d been lying on it. Blinking his eyes against the light, he lifted himself slowly onto his elbows, the mattress underneath him squalling. James was still fast asleep and snoring, his arm dangling off the bed and his blankets all tangled around his knees. He'd forgotten to take his glasses off, and they had slid up his forehead where they rested now, crooked and pressing into his eyebrow. Sirius tried remember the conversation they’d been having the night before, something about quidditch or Lily. Mostly Lily. Like usual, he’d had to listen to hours of James bloviate on the subject. Lily’s hair, Lily’s eyes, the way Lily always bit her lip when she was thinking about what to write next. Sirius had never been happier in his life.

Sirius rolled off his mattress onto the floor, pausing to check if James heard him, but James continued to snore. Sirius stood. He’d been in James’ room enough times now to know exactly which floorboards creaked when you stepped on them. He skirted carefully around them, particularly the one peculiar board that let out a long, agonized wail if you so much as nudged it. A crash from the floor below stopped Sirius in his tracks. Tootsie had probably dropped a breakfast tray. Again. Sirius looked at James; his face slid a little farther down the pillow, and his glasses slid a little farther up his face, but otherwise he didn’t move.

Sirius launched himself onto James’ bed, landing on James’ legs. James set bolt upright with a shout, reaching to his side table for his wand, his glasses clattering to the floor. James’ hands closed around empty air and Sirius burst into laughter.

James groaned, swiping his hands down his face. “Sirius, what the bloody hell are you doing?”

“It’s Christmas.”

“And that gives you the right to disturb my well-earned rest, does it?” James reached down to grab his glasses off the floor, settling them over his nose. There was a short, indent running through his eyebrow where the glasses had been pressing.

“Well earned my arse. I don’t think winning a two-on-one quidditch match qualifies as ‘well earned.’”

James shoved Sirius off the bed. “Where is Pete, by the way?” he asked, glancing over at the other mattress on the floor.

“You know Wormtail, he probably went to go get some food.”

“Yeah. You think we’d have heard him though, don’t you? He never manages to remember about that screaming floorboard.”

“Ah, well, he’ll turn up eventually. We should head downstairs. There’ll be presents.”

“All right, all right. Calm down.”

Tootsie bumbled by them at the bottom of the stairs with a tray of broken teacups.

“Pardon me, sirs,” she squeaked as she shuffled back into the kitchen, head low, starring at the ground. James’ mum sat in the middle of the room, The Daily Prophet open in her lap. Mrs. Potter was a tall woman with a kind face. Her once auburn hair was streaked with liberal amounts of grey. In the corner of the room was a gigantic Christmas tree Sirius and James had decorated the night before. Beneath it was a large stack of presents, neatly wrapped, and tied with ribbons. Mr. Potter walked into the room behind them. He resembled his wife, just as tall and lanky. He was never without a smile. He had thick square glasses perched on thinning silver hair, just as messy as his son’s. He ran his thin fingers through it and tucked his hands in the pockets of his pajamas.

“Tootsie’s just had to remake breakfast. Where’s your other friend? That Peter boy?” Mr. Potter asked. James looked around.

“I thought he’d come down here.”

“I haven’t seen him,” Mrs. Potter said. James and Sirius exchanged glances.

“Should we go and look for him? It’s a big house. He might have gotten lost.”

“I haven’t gotten lost.” From the doorway, Peter pushed his way past Mr. Potter.

“Right good.” Mr. Potter clapped his hands together. Breakfast should be ready any minute. Mr. Potter directed them towards the dining room. Mr. and Mrs. Potter sat beside each other at the table. It was far too large for five people and yet the Potters filled the space with their presence. It was so drastically different to his parents’ home. All stiff family dinners and tense conversation. Usually, the air was so thick, Sirius could feel it pressing in on him, the oppressive silence grating at his ears. The Potters’ dinning room was warm, and full of life. They waited for Tootsie to finish breakfast in jovial discussion.

Mrs. Potter’s gasp caught the attention of the boys, busy in a heated debate about the next outcome of the inter-league quidditch season. She stared, eyes wide, at the Daily Prophet in front of her, her hand over her mouth.

“Mum?” James asked tentatively, reaching out to touch her hand. He couldn’t quite reach. Mr. Potter peered over the side of the paper.

“Another family’s been killed,” she said, her voice barely above a whisper; the hand holding the paper shook. Mr. Potter eased it gently from her hand and read aloud.

“‘Another Family Murdered by He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named.’ Well that’s not new. ‘The ministry “is saddened”’ they have that in quotes here; what can you expect from the Daily Prophet, they all suspect something’s going on, ‘The ministry “is saddened” to report deaths of another wizarding family this past evening. Their bodies were found in their home, as were the bodies of the surrounding muggle neighbors. While the Ministry is reluctant to provide details, they have confirmed that two of the dead were ministry officials. Whether or not He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named was personally involved is yet to be seen.

“‘The house was found in considerable disarray, but there was no evidence of a fight. In total, eight muggles were killed, and six wizards. The Ministry refused to give names, however a trusted source revealed that three of the dead were children, one of whom was a student at Hogwarts. For—” but Sirius stood abruptly, cutting him off.

“Sirius?” James asked slowly, reaching across the table, the same gesture he had made towards his mother minutes earlier. Sirius stared at Mr. Potter. The air in the room had gone thin. The sharp bite of pain in his palm caused him to look down at his fingers, digging into his nails so hard into his hand he’d drawn blood. He looked at James, who was staring at him blankly.

“Sorry.” Sirius sat back down, wiping his palms on his jeans. Mr. Potter continued.

“‘For more information about He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, and the secrets the ministry is hiding turn to page 6.’ Well that’s just like the Prophet isn’t it? Ministry’s hiding things and all that.”

“Someone from Hogwarts. I wonder if we knew him.” Sirius said, rubbing absently at the cuts in his palms.

James continued to stare at him, expression unchanged. “Probably.” Sirius looked at the wall to the left of James. James’ gaze burned into his forehead. The atmosphere was only broken when Tootsie finally came in to deliver breakfast. She bobbed into the room, a tray on her head, settled the dishes in front of each of them and her tray bobbed away again. Breakfast proceeded tersely and Sirius was inevitably reminded of another breakfast scene not all that long ago, although on that occasion he expressly remembered being elbowed in the face by the one boy who wasn’t there now. Sirius’ eyes stuck on the spot Remus wasn’t.

James waited until the three of them were alone to bring up the subject again. 

“It’s not him, you know that, right?” James asked. They were laying across the furniture in the Potters’ drawing room. Peter had tucked himself into one of the armchairs by the fire. James was in the other one sitting upside down with his feet in the air and his head hanging over the edge of the seat. Sirius lay sprawled on his back on the carpet, staring at the ceiling, tracing the intricately carved designs with his eyes.

“Yeah.” Sirius said. “Yeah, I know that.” He did. Remus lived with his parents in the middle of nowhere. His dad worked from the Ministry, but his mother was a muggle. But still something gnawed at him. He rolled over onto his stomach, resting his chin on his hands. His last conversation with Remus played on repeat in his head. And the moment he though Remus might kiss him. His heart thudded loudly in his ears. He wasn’t sure what he expected. Why would Remus kiss him? They’d been fighting for months. He wouldn’t be able to live with himself if that was the last conversation they had. If he never got to find out was Remus’ mouth felt like on his…

“What do you suppose happens,” Peter said suddenly. “If the wizarding world does go to war with You-Know-Who?”

“We fight him.” James said. Peter clutched his knees tighter to his chest.

“Do you think we can beat him? All those people he’s killed, and the ministry hasn’t found a way to stop him yet.”

“Of course, we’ll beat him, Pete,” James told him, reaching over to nudge Peter with his foot.

“Or die trying,” Sirius added. Peter let out a little squeak. James tossed a pillow at Sirius’ head.

“We’re not gonna die. Come on, let’s go play some more quidditch. It’s a perfect day for it.

“What, cold and wet?”

“Any weather is quidditch weather, Padfoot.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> … So basically I'm an epic failure.  
> Turns out senior year is hard. I don't wanna go to college next year. Anyway, basically, I have way more work than I thought I would... and so basically, my updates are going to be more inconsistent than ever!  
> I say all this as if I've ever been good at updating in the first place. Mostly this message serves to assuage my own guilt. All these messages do. I'm a mess. And I like to ramble. Clearly. Needless to say, I have not abandoned this project!! I have so many idea for this, and I'm really excited. It's... just going to take me a little longer than I intended...  
> Like, comment, etc, etc... Much Love  
> -1 TruFangirl


	29. Dumbledore's News

Remus lugged his trunk up the aisle of the Hogwarts Express. Lange thick flakes of snow fell past the windows, blanketing the view outside in a screen of white from which it was impossible to distinguish the surroundings beyond. Remus clutched the handle of his trunk tighter, pulled his cloak around his shoulders and stepped into the storm. The wind grappled with the ends of his scarf for a moment, whipping them over his eyes. He pulled them down, squinting to scan the area. The visibility was no better outside. Where was he?

“Remus!” Remus turned to the sound of the voice, barely audible over the roaring wind. Lily stood a few feet away at the nearest horseless carriage, only recognizable by the flames of red hair blowing from underneath her hat. Remus turned around, fighting against the stream of people to get to her.

“You want to join us?” Lily gestured to the carriage.

“Yeah, thanks.” Lily helped him pull his trunk up onto the luggage rack, then shut the dor with a snap, the two of them tucked safely inside. The carriage was not empty. A plethora of Lily’s other friends had already squeezed in together. Remus said a brief hello to the four of them and pulled his book out of his pocket, preparing to spend most of the ride in silence.

“What happened to your arm, Remus?” asked Alice, leaning across the carriage. Remus moved to pull away, but she was too quick, grabbing him by the wrist and pulling his sleeve up to the elbow. Remus winced as her fingers squeezed the cut wrapped under several layers of white bandages, the result of another rough full moon.

“It’s nothing,” Remus said, easing his arm gently out of Alice’s grip. “I was helping my mum with dinner; the knife slipped.”

“Your father’s a wizard, right? Why couldn’t he fix it?” Alice’s gaze was fixed on his face with the kind of sympathy he was far too used to receiving from people when he gave them another excuse.

“Oh, he’s rubbish at healing spells.” Remus let out a short laugh that didn’t sound remotely sincere.

“Well, we know where you get it from, then,” Marlene said, flicking her legs up onto Dorcas’ lap as she spoke.

“I could give it a shot if you’d like, Remus,” Alice said gently, reaching out to take Remus’ arm again. Remus pulled his arm into his chest, discreetly pulling his sleeve back over the bandage.

“It’s all right, Alice. It’s almost healed now anyway.” Alice drew back, but her eyebrows remained furrowed.

“If you’re sure. At least go see Madam Pomphrey when we get up to castle.”

“’Course.” Remus smiled. Only Lily continued to watch him pointedly. Remus licked his lips and rubbed his palms on his robes.

“Lily, did you happen to see James and Sirius earlier, I couldn’t find them on the train.”

“No, I thought they would be with you.”

Remus shook his head. Lily went quiet for a moment.

“You heard what happened then, over the break? About the student? It’s not one of them, you know that, right?” Remus hesitated. He did know that. He did. But it could have been them. He nodded, so small it was barely perceptible. The carriage was silent.

“I wonder who it was…” Marlene murmured.

The carriages came to a halt in front of the Hogwarts gates. The winged boars gazed haughtily ahead, uncaring, unfeeling. Snowflakes powdered their heads and the steps leading up to the castle, imprinted with hundreds of packed footprints. The Entrance Hall was little warmer. Light spilled from the Great Hall, golden and welcoming, but goosebumps jumped up over Remus’ skin. He scanned down the Gryffindor table, his heart traveling closer to his mouth the farther down he looked.

There. Standing at the end of the table with his bag hanging off his shoulder was Sirius, staring. Remus’ lungs seemed to stop working. He released a long, slow breath, and started down the aisle between the house tables. Sirius’ eyes widened; he took a half step back, like he thought Remus might hit him, then stood his ground. Remus flung his arms around Sirius’ neck. It took a half second of standing with his arms stiff by his side, barely breathing, before melting into the hug, squeezing Remus’ still-sore ribs just a bit too tightly, but he didn’t care. It was just proof that Sirius was really there, alive, warm, flesh and bone. That they were finally okay, after months and months of fighting.

“I’m sorry,” Sirius whispered. “I’m sorry I was ignoring you, and that I fought Snive—Snape over something so stupid. And the papers said a student died and it could have been you… and I—"

“I know.” Remus cut him off. “And… I’m sorry too. For yelling at you. I don’t think I could live with myself if you’d…” the word stuck in Remus’ throat.

“Oi, we’re here too. And neither of us have died,” James piped up from the table, dragging Sirius and Remus onto the bench beside him. But his head shot up, completely distracted when Lily and her friends sat down across from them on the other side of the table.

“Lily. Had a nice holiday?” he asked, swiping his hand through his hair.

“It was horrid, but thank you for asking, James,” Lily replied.

“What was so bad about it?” asked Remus.

“Petunia and her awful boyfriend interrupted the festivities. Fiancée, I should say; she announced their engagement on Christmas Eve. Shouldn’t there be food by now?” Lily directed her question at the empty plates in front of them. Around them, the irritated buzz of fellow students indicated similar concern. As if in answer, Dumbledore rose to his feet at the head of the staff table. The scrape of his chair and his light cough brought the noise to a gentle simmer. He waited until the noise died a way completely and opened his hands wide, with a small smile, tight with the burden of one who must deliver terrible news. Sirius’ had crept over Remus’ wrist. Remus looked down, startling at the unexpected touch. Sirius caught his eye and looked down, letting go quickly. Dumbledore took a deep breath. Remus had never seen him looking so old. The light in his eyes was gone. He moved slowly and deliberately.

“Students, as you know, over the holidays, a terrible tragedy befell the wizarding world. Not only, has it lost a pair of brilliant wizards, but Hogwarts has lost a wonderful student. It is the Ministry’s desire to keep the identity of those who died private, until an investigation can be conducted, but I believe as her classmates, you all have the right to know who she was.

“Mallory Wright was a gifted student. Intelligent, kind and wonderfully humorous.” Immediately James and Sirius stood, and they were not alone. Across the Gryffindor table, one girl cried out. Several others gasped. Remus heard a whispered, “No,” from several seats down. But Dumbledore did not stop. 

“Her death will not be forgotten. She will not go unrecognized for her achievements. Let her death be a lesson to us all, to cherish to ones we love. To be kind to one another, and to forgive. We must all be careful in such perilous times, and make sure that when the time comes, we stand together.” Dumbledore sat, leaving the room in a stunned silence. Food appeared on the plates all down the tables, but no one ate. James and Sirius stayed standing. Sirius clutched the table so hard his knuckles had gone white.  
“Sirius,” Remus whispered. “Who was she?”

“She played for the quidditch team. She was our keeper.” Slowly, atmosphere in the room unfroze. At Dumbledore’s lead, the other houses began spooning portions of nearby dishes onto their plates. The conversation started again, but far from the pleasant talk about the holidays of before, they were all talking about Mallory. Remus didn’t have to hear the words to know. It was in they way they bent their heads and kept their voices down. Even the teachers were talking about it, though some, like Professor McGonagall remained strictly out of the conversation. Remus caught her snapping at Professor Lunly next to her, when he tried to engage her in conversation. Remus tried to tug Sirius down by the sleeve of his robes. He didn’t sit so much as fall back onto the bench dumping his elbows on the table hard enough to make the silverware rattle.

The surrounding group spent the remainder of the dinner in silence. Neither Sirius or James seemed to have any desire to make conversation, and the rest of them followed their lead. As they left the great hall, having eaten very little, they passed a girl Remus also recognized as being on the Gryffindor Quidditch team, though he couldn’t remember her name. She had her head down in her arms, her chest heaving with breathless sobs. Her friends comforted her awkwardly. Sirius glanced at her as they passed, but didn’t offer any words of comfort.

The Entrance Hall felt no less crowded than the Great Hall, and to Remus’ dismay, standing off the side of the doors was a group of Slytherins. It was a mix of the Slytherin quidditch team and some of the more menacing self-proclaimed death eaters. Remus glanced at Sirius and James. Both seemed in a mood to pick a fight, but to his surprise, they walked past the Slytherins without giving them a thought.

“Potter!” Murry Roberts yelled across the hall. “Down a keeper now, your team stands no chance!” James swung around, suddenly fuming.

“Now is not the time, Roberts,” he snapped.

“Aw, are you sad because your Keeper’s dead. You better not cry, now.” The other students around her laughed. Now Sirius joined James.

“You better shut it, before I shut you up myself,” said Sirius.

“Oh,” Roberts crooned. “Little Sirius is here to defend his teammates too. What are you going to do against us? Sirius Black, the outcast who doesn’t have a family, and James Potter, the stuck-up rich boy. You should be happy, another couple of filthy muggle lovers are dead. You’re an embarrassment to proper pure-blood families, both of you. Sirius looked like he was about to launch himself across the room, but Remus beat him to it, sprinting past them, whipping his wand out of his robes. Blood rushed in his head. His insides boiled, teeth clenched. He fired his first hex and Roberts and it hit her square between the eyes. She was blasted back into her fellow classmates and several them went sprawling on the floor. Others reached hastily for their own wands, but Remus was too quick, disarming two of them and hexing another so that he stuck to the wall. Sirius and James quickly joined them. Shouts echoed off the ceiling, and more issued form the Great Hall. Students spilled out into the Entrance Hall to see what was going on. Remus hardly noticed. Snape disarmed Remus from behind on of his friends whose feet were now stuck to the floor. Remus watched his wand fly out of his hands, and Snape grinned triumphantly for a second before Remus drew back his fist and punched Snape in the nose.

“What in Merlin’s name in going on here!” Roared the harsh voice of Professor McGonagall. “Immobulus!” The fight was halted only by the strength of McGonagall’s charm. “I cannot believe what I am seeing. You five. Again! Surely, the four of you,” she gestured vehemently at them, frozen, “would understand the gravity of what has just happened. Did you listen at all to what Professor Dumbledore told you all? I am in utter disbelief. All of you will be receive a month’s worth of detention. And twenty points from each of you! I am absolutely disgusted.” With a violent wave of her wand she released them all from her charm. To your dormitories, immediately.” Alarmed, Remus retreated from the hall with his friends in tow. 

They made their way alone up the marble staircase and through the corridors. Once they were out of ear shot, Sirius slowed, and turned to Remus, gaping at him in disbelief.

“Did my eyes betray me just now, or did you just punch Snivellus in the face?” he asked.

Remus allowed himself a light chuckle, “No, you’re not hallucinating.”

Sirius grinned, throwing his arm around Remus’ shoulder and continuing down the corridor. “Brilliant! Absolutely brilliant. I can’t believe it.” Remus grinned sheepishly. His knuckles throbbed, but looking at Sirius grinning at him like a lunatic was worth it.

“We have to figure out what their doing. I vote we start working on that map as soon as we can,” said Sirius.

“What map?” Remus asked.

“Oh, Merlin, I forgot to tell you. I had the most brilliant idea. We’ll make a map that tracks everyone’s movement within the castle. I haven’t worked out the logistics yet, but I figured with you, we’d have no problem.”

“‘Logistics,’ that’s big word.”

“Oh, shut up, Moony.” Sirius punched his arm lightly. “So, you think we can do it?”

“I think I have a few ideas, yeah.”

“Brilliant.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hooty-hoot, it's another chapter! I'm not going to lie, this chapter was fuuuun. I hope I broke some hearts. I have been waiting to get to this part of the fic for months.  
> Like, Comment, etc, etc... Much Love,  
> -1TruFangirl


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